The 2010 Revision and the Future of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement: Report of an Informal Seminar

The EU-ACP Partnership Agreement (CPA) was signed in 2000 in Cotonou, Benin for 20 years, and includes provisions that allow for a review and possible revision of the Agreement every 5 years. The first review took place in 2005 and resulted in revisions with regard to – among other issues – the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the management of the European Development Fund (EDF), peace and security and political dialogue. According to the calendar provided in the Agreement the parties have to notify each other about issues for the 2010 review by the end of February 2009. Mid-2008 is therefore an appropriate moment to start reflecting what this second review might consider.

The review process feeding into the second revision in 2010 will obviously provide an opportunity for both the European Union (EU) and the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific in the ACP Group to adapt the Agreement to recent major changes in international and ACP-EU relations. Beyond that however this is the mid-term review of the CPA and as we enter the Agreement’s second decade the parties will be considering where they want to be in their relationship by the end of the Agreement in 2020.