The Economic Partnership Agreements Between The Eu And The Acp States

Author : Dennis Fischer (M.A.)
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (792 download)

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Download or read book From Particularity to Partnership? written by Dennis Fischer (M.A.) and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States represents an important yet very distinct case in international relations: its origins were colonial arrangements at the inception of the European Community which were subsequently transformed into the largest framework of North-South development cooperation. External relations with ACP states were formalised in 1975 with the first of four successive Lomé conventions and the EU provided its developing partners with considerable amounts of financial assistance and non-reciprocal preferential market access. In 2000, this relationship experienced a significant readjustment with the Cotonou Partnership Agreement and the introduction of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).The European Commission heralded this agreement as a new era in development cooperation and EPAs as development instruments per se. Despite the rhetoric emphasis on the partnership principle in development cooperation, introduced reforms are primarily dictated by the EU while neglecting the impact on ACP states, for which the EPA negotiations represent a good example. As a result, this special relationship has considerably cooled down, the implementation of EPAs had largely failed and the EU became the target of public critique. This thesis demonstrates that the particularity of this relationship was enabled but subsequently rationalised in the course of institutional developments of the EU and its progressive involvement in a changing international political economy. European politics have dominated this relationship from the early beginning onwards and never simply focussed on the development of ACP countries but on a number of self-centred interests and objectives. The goals involved in this relationship subsequently changed and were increasingly aligned with those pursued in multilateral development and trade relations. The EU is not a unitary and coherent external actor and the European Commission has become a driving force behind the implementation of neo-liberal reforms towards ACP states. Special emphasis is placed on the role of the Commission in the processes which had led to the Cotonou Agreement, the implementation of EPAs and the erosion of this partnership.