The EU will accept the request of the Federal Republic of Somalia to accede to the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement ("Cotonou Agreement"), was decided at the last foreign affairs Council of the European Union the Union, held on 27-28 May in Brussels.

EU’s proposed approach of ‘differentiation’ will lead to cuts in grant-based bilateral aid to 17 upper-middle-income countries (UMICs) and two lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2014. These countries will only still be eligible for funds from thematic and regional programmes.
This policy is expected to fundamentally change the nature of the international development and cooperation dynamics by altering the volume of funds, modalities, and sectors.

A new 15,4 (EC$54) million EUR banana support programme was launched in the Carribean state, Dominica. The package is part of the European Commission’s Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM) programme.

It would be "rather unwise" for Africa to grant preferential market access to Europe, and, instead of continuing to threaten with deadlines over the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs), the EU should rethink its strategy, Economist Paul Collier, Co-Director, Centre for the Study of African Economies said.

Lithuania, the small Baltic country that will take over the rotating EU presidency on 1 July, will have to deal with extremely heavy dossiers, such as the adoption of several items of legislation needed to implement the EU budget for the next seven years.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and six of his colleagues held a two-day meeting with the African Union Commission between 25 and 25 April  in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

UK Direct aid to South Africa will be stopped as of 2015, International Development Secretary Justine Greening announced at a conference of African ministers and business leaders in London on April 30th.

There is growing optimism that the countries of Southern Africa are within months of concluding negotiations with the European Union on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) deal, after years of hesitant progress, the EU ambassador in Pretoria (South Africa), Roeland van de Geer, told IPS. “This could be the breakthrough year,” van de Geer added.

The EU fully supports Ethiopia's efforts to join the WTO, and both the EU and Ethiopia have a common interest in stability and economic development of the Horn of Africa – these were among the key remarks by President of the Council of the EU, Herman Van Rompuy, after his meeting on 17 April with Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, in Brussels.

The amount of the envelope for the 11th European Development Fund - EDF (corresponding to the period 2014-2020) to the ACP countries will be 30,5 billion euros, the European Commissioner for Development of the European Commission, Andris Piebalgs confirmed during the 10th meeting of Ministers of national and regional officers for the European Union (EU) - African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) cooperation, held in Brussels between 17th and 18th April.