+++ ECDPM Challenges blog series. Post number three +++ Will 2014 be a year of implementation? If 2014 is to be a year in which we see genuine moves towards economic transformation it will likely rely less on the international agenda than domestic politics and how these interact with global economic processes. Economic transformation will only take place when governments and the private sector can align interests to make partnerships work. Otherwise, we are unlikely to see much progress in 2014. We have a busy agenda ahead of us…. On-going discussions on the post-2015 agenda will offer opportunities ...
Agenda: http://www.ecdpm.org/ettg2013 Background blogs and insight: http://www.africaeu2014.blogspot.be/ Tweets about “#AfricaEU2014″
The Pacific always has been regarded as “the small boy in the ACP class”. With the exception of the “Pacific giant” Papua New Guinea, the region mainly includes small independent islands states such as Niue, Tuvalu or Nauru. Some of these have less inhabitants than an average European village or hamlet. Under the leadership of former Nigerian President Obasanjo, the ACP Group recently established an Eminent Persons Group (EPG), that will reflect on the future of the ACP Group. Regional multi-stakeholder consultations are now being organised in each of the six ACP sub-regions. Last week ...
The European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) facilitated an informal high-level seminar on future perspectives for Africa-EU and ACP-EU relations. Bringing together senior officials from both ACP, African and EU institutions and member states, as well as members of the Board and staff of ECDPM, the seminar provided participants with an opportunity to engage in an open and frank discussion under the Chatham House rule on emerging dynamics in the global landscape of international cooperation and their particular implications for the longstanding relationship between Africa-EU and ACP-EU. This blog post is a summary of ...
This interview was filmed on the fringes of an informal high-level seminar on post 2015 and beyond 2020: What new perspectives for Africa-EU and ACP-EU relations? Vervaeke, Director for Horn of Africa, Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean for the European External Action Service in Brussels, says that a contractual engagement such as with the ACP is an important lesson for improving the political relationship between EU and Africa. He answers questions about how an economic crisis in Europe impacts on the relationship, as well as how to deal with emerging economies, adding that “Africa ...
Paul Engel, Director of ECDPM, gives his thoughts on the relationship between Europe and the world. It is very much up for debate, and Paul explains why it is important to adapt and understand how this effects the way we work in international cooperation. The transcript is below. The clip is taken from an interview explaining how ECDPM works and what it does. You can watch the video about the organisation. TRANSCRIPT: The relationship between Europe and the world has changed a lot over the past 10-20 years. Twenty years ago we could still think ...
The Cotonou agreement governs relations between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states and the EU - and it will expire in 2020. It is a framework concerning political dialogue, development cooperation and trade, but thanks to the success of these three ‘pillars’ and a changing international landscape, the relationship has cause for some readjustment. In this video the new Secretary General of the Group underlines the self-reflection currently taking place within the ACP, as it looks for a different approach to Europe. A recent ECDPM/German Development institute paper has set out reasons to ...
Geert Laporte co-authored this article. European Heads of State were recently advised to bring more than one shirt to the 22-23 November summit to discuss the EU budget. Those who specialise in the relations between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries will definitely also need a few more shirts during the next few weeks. From 27-29 November the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) convened in Suriname, a destination European MEPs only agreed to on condition that the country’s president Desi Bouterse would not turn up. During this meeting the ACP Secretary ...
Over the past couple of years, new global players underscored their ascendance in the world order. Emerging economies leveraged their strong economic recovery with a rapid expansion of global trade and finance, including to developing countries. By contrast, many traditional global powers struggled to make ends meet. Countries that have been prominent donors for decades fell back on their development cooperation commitments. Many, moreover, continued to integrate their development support with responses to a host of other concerns – such as peace and security, climate change, economic recovery and growth, and food security. They now ...
(Version française ci-dessous) When it was signed in 2000, the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the 79-member African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States and the European Union was widely viewed as offering an ambitious and innovative agenda that would enhance political dialogue, encourage the participation of non-state actors and result in a more effective development cooperation framework. It therefore went beyond the narrow trade and aid focus that was the hallmark of earlier ACP-EU treaties, right from the first post-independence framework agreed in Yaoundé in 1963 through the four successive Lomé conventions implemented between 1975 and ...
