The chief negotiator of the African, Caribbean and the Pacific countries has called for more imagination when looking to the future of EU-ACP relations. Robert Dussey is Togo's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and African Integration and Chief Negotiator of the ACP Group for the future of relations with the EU after the end of the Cotonou Agreement. The scheduled expiry of the Cotonou Agreement in 2020 is not the end of the ACP-EU partnership. The two parties are currently in talks, and negotiations for a new partnership agreement will begin from 1st October 2018. The novelty of the proposed agreement lies in its structure. The agreement will have a common basis applicable to all the members of the partnership, and three specific regional partnerships for Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). The post-Cotonou agreement must contribute to the achievement of sustainable development in the ACP countries. The ACP peoples’ right to development, the SDO’s, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the African Union Agenda 2063 must be at the heart of the future ACP-EU Partnership Agreement. We have reasons for hope, however hope in the future of our partnership is only legitimate as long as it is based on the commitment of both sides to work together in order to achieve prosperity. The ACP-EU partnership can only keep its promises if it does not undermine the ACP countries’ home-grown development efforts and cause the dismantling of their young industries and economies. We need more ambition and imagination to understand the new challenges of the cooperation that we desire, and we need to be more productive, fair and responsible. The ACP’s are less interested in charity than justice and fairness in the terms of the future partnership agreement.
Source: euractiv.fr