Post-Cotonou: Preliminary positions of EU Member States

Key messages: Negotiations about the Cotonou Partnership Agreement after 2020 started before the summer of 2015. This paper explores the preliminary positions of EU Member States at the very start of the negotiation process, which is now well on its way. The EU remains the largest donor of development aid to ACP countries to date. This underlying donor-recipient relationship between ACP and EU partners raises varying expectations about the future agreement. For EU15 Member States with strong bilateral relations with ACP countries, no drastic change is required after 2020. Other EU15 countries consider the current agreement not fit-for-purpose. The third group of the newest EU Member States have no strong bilateral interests. This paper was written by two external authors whose views do not necessarily represent those of ECDPM. Read Briefing Note 87: