Relations between the European Union and its partners in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) are in a parlous state. Past readers of ECDPM’s annual Challenges Paper know that we regularly refer to ACP-EU relations as being at a critical juncture, and this is certainly true at the start of 2011. The EU’s credibility in much of the ACP is at an all-time low, and in the EU many seem to have lost faith in the future of the partnership with the ACP. Moreover, there is a collective failure to recognise that in the face of such inertia, new thinking is essential and business as usual is no longer possible. If relations do not improve soon there will be little basis on which to negotiate a follow-up of the Cotonou agreement by 2020. Several ‘windows of opportunity’ to revitalize cooperation between the EU and the ACP and with Africa (as a continental entity involved in process of pan-African integration) are explored in this paper, each of them presenting various challenges to be addressed in the near future. ECDPM’s annual Challenges Paper seeks to identify important debates that can be expected in the coming year and beyond and to sketch the backdrop against which these will unfold. The aim is not to predict outcomes, but to situate debates concerning the ACP-EU partnership so that as wide a group of stakeholders as possible can follow and participate in them.
December 20, 2010
