Development cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) started in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome, which first established a collective European development policy. The Treaty of Rome granted associated status to 31 overseas collectivities and territories (OCTs) and provided for the creation of a European Development Fund (EDF) intended to grant technical and financial assistance to the countries which were still under European rule at the time. More significantly, however, by means of the Treaty of Rome the six member states of the European Economic Community were expressing solidarity with the colonies and OCTs and committed themselves to contribute to their prosperity. The EDF has to date been funded outside the EU budget by the EU Member States on the basis of financial payments related to specific contribution shares, or “keys”, which are subject to negotiation. The EDF is currently the only EU policy instrument that is financed through a specific key that is different from the EU budget key, and which reflects the comparative interests of individual Member States.
Main actors
The European Union
Beginning in 1957 (Rome Treaty) a group of 6 nations in Western Europe, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, created the European Economic Community (EEC). These member states were gradually joined by others through various waves of enlargement and became the European Union.
The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States
Similarly to European expansion, at the time of the Treaty of Rome, there were a limited number of nations involved. Beginning with 18 countries and territories that had special relations with the member states, the so-called Associated States gained membership, eventually establishing the group known as the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States.
History
The Yaoundé Agreements
The first cycle of the EDF was designed for a period of five years and took effect in 1959 (now in its 10th cycle and with a budget of €22.7 billion). As it drew to a close, however, many of the OCTs had regained independence and new arrangements were necessary. In 1963, representatives of the EEC Member States and 17 African countries and Madagascar met in Yaoundé, Cameroon, to sign their first partnership agreement in history. The group of developing countries which signed the final agreement were granted preferential trade arrangements such as the duty-free access of specified African goods into the European market. In addition, it was agreed to continue support via the EDF and the European Investment Bank (EIB) (p. 29).
In 1969 the agreements made in the first Yaoundé Convention were renewed by the second Yaoundé Convention which lasted until 1975.
One of the most important aspects of Yaoundé was its foundation on the recognition of national sovereignty of all participating countries. It was furthermore not only unprecedented in its form but also unique in its comprehensiveness, covering aspects from financial and technical assistance (through the EDF) to investment and capital movements (through the EIB) to trade preferences. The structure established in Yaoundé remains the framework for many aspects of ACP-EU cooperation until today.
The Lomé Conventions
The Yaoundé II Agreement expired in 1974 and was succeeded by a new Convention, signed in and named after the capital of Togo: Lomé. The establishment of a new preferential trade agreement instead of a continuation of the old one was incited by both unsatisfactory outcomes of the previous arrangement as well as changes in the European political framework. From the developing countries’ point of view, the call for new negotiations was prompted by the strong neo-colonial aspects which were still detectable in the Yaoundé Agreement and the disappointing economic results it had produced. From a European point of view, the development strategy experienced a shift from a regional to a more global approach with the introduction of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) in 1971. Simultaneously, the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Community in 1973 meant that the Francophone focus of development policy was soon shifted to include the developing countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.