Policy Management Report 13 The Cotonou Partnership Agreement: What role in a changing world? Reflections on the future of ACP-EU relations Geert Laporte European Centre for Development Policy Management Centre européen de gestion des politiques de développement The Cotonou Partnership Agreement: What role in a changing world? Reflections on the future of ACP-EU relations Geert Laporte November 2007 The ECDPM acknowledges the support it receives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Belgium, Finland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Sweden, Irish Aid, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Instituo Portugues de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento. Copyright © 2007 Laporte, G. 2007. The Cotonou Partnership Agreement: What role in a changing world? (ECDPM Policy Management Report 13). Maastricht. www.ecdpm.org/pmr13 Photocredit: CEMAC Heads of State meeting 2006, Bata Equatorial Guinea ISBN: 978-90-72908-33-9 Contents Foreword by Dr. Paul Engel, Director of ECDPM ................................................................v List of acronyms ................................................................................................................. vi Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... vii Introductory remarks by Ambassador Lingston Cumberbatch, Chairman of the Board of ECDPM .....................................................................................ix Executive Summary .........................................................................................................xix CHAPTER I: Framing the debate ...................................................................... 1 Focus and approach of the ECDPM seminar CHAPTER II: How has the CPA delivered on its key innovations? .................7 1 Sound politics as a key pillar of the CPA ......................................................................8 1.1 Context ..............................................................................................................................................8 1.2 Guiding questions ...........................................................................................................................9 1.3 Progress so far ..................................................................................................................................9 1.4 Constraints ...................................................................................................................................... 10 1.5 The way forward: Implementation challenges ...................................................................... 11 2 Opening the partnership to non-state actors ............................................................14 2.1 Context ............................................................................................................................................ 14 2.2 Guiding questions ..........................................................................................................................15 2.3 Progress so far ................................................................................................................................ 16 2.4 Constraints ...................................................................................................................................... 16 2.5 The way forward: implementation challenges ..................................................................... 18 3 A new framework of reciprocal trade relations .........................................................21 3.1 Context .............................................................................................................................................21 3.2 Guiding questions .........................................................................................................................22 3.3 Progress so far ................................................................................................................................22 3.4 Constraints ...................................................................................................................................... 23 3.5 The way forward: implementation challenges .....................................................................24 4 Rationalisation of instruments and management of performance-based aid ....... 27 4.1 Context ............................................................................................................................................ 27 4.2 Guiding questions ......................................................................................................................... 27 4.3 Progress achieved so far ..............................................................................................................28 4.4 Constraints ......................................................................................................................................30 4.5 The way forward: implementation challenges ......................................................................31 5 Where to go from here?...............................................................................................33 iii The Cotonou Partnership Agreement www.ecdpm.org/pmr13 CHAPTER III: Continuing relevance of Cotonou in a changing world? .......35 Scenario 1: ...................................................................................................................................37 Cotonou is relevant but some ‘mini-engineering’ might be needed to make it work better Scenario 2: .................................................................................................................................. 39 Cotonou and ACP-EU cooperation have no future and have become irrelevant in a changing world Scenario 3: ..............................................................................................................................40 Cotonou still has great potential, but fundamental adjustments are needed to confront new realities Annexes: Analytical papers .......................................................................... 45 a. Political Dimensions: Introductory Note ...................................................................46 Jan Vanheukelom, James Mackie & Jean Bossuyt b. Putting the Political Dimension into Practice ...........................................................56 Wolfram Vetter c. Broadening the Partnership to Non-State Actors and Local Governments ............62 Jean Bossuyt d. The Case of the Implementation of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement: ............67 The Case of PASOC in Mauritania. Zakaria Ould Amar e. Redefining ACP-EU Trade Relations: Economic Partnership Agreements .................71 Sanoussi Bilal f. EDF Management and Performance ..........................................................................89 James Mackie g. EDF Management: A view from the field .................................................................. 97 Vibeke Rasmussen and Jason Scott h. The Cotonou Partnership Agreement: A way forward in a changing world? ....... 108 Paul Engel, Jean Bossuyt, Geert Laporte & James Mackie List of participants .............................................................................................................. 114 iv www.ecdpm.org/pmr13 The Cotonou Partnership Agreement Foreword In a rapidly changing world the ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement (2000-2020) faces steep challenges. When Cotonou was signed in 2000 it represented a huge step forward in ACP-EU and international North-South relations. Cotonou was setting an ambitious and innovative agenda in terms of political dialogue, non-state actors participation, trade and development and performance based aid management. In several of these areas major progress has been realised, in others Cotonou was not yet able to live up to the high expec- tations. In recent years some fundamental changes in the EU and the ACP cast a cloud upon the Cotonou Partnership and its future. Several factors illustrate the rapidly changing ACP-EU landscape including the closer relations between the EU and the African Union with the Joint EU-Africa Strategy and the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which are likely to affect the unity of the ACP Group. After one third of its projected life-span it is therefore time that the ACP and the EU re- assess, reorient and perhaps reinvent the ACP-EU Partnership. As an independent foundation, operating in the ACP-EU arena, ECDPM is willing to play a facilitating role in this debate. It will do so in the coming months and years through the mobilisation of the various key actors involved collective search for a new rationale. I would like to thank all colleagues at ECDPM, partner institutes and associates who have contributed to this Policy Management Report. I do hope that this report can contribute to a rich and constructive debate on the future of ACP-EU relations in the coming months and years. Dr Paul Engel Director v The Cotonou Partnership Agreement www.ecdpm.org/pmr13 List of acronyms ACP African, Caribbean and Pacific States AfT Aid for Trade AU African Union CPA Cotonou Partnership Agreement CSS Country Support Strategies DAC Development Assistance Committee EBA Everything But Arms EC European Commission ECDPM European Centre for Development Policy Management EDF European Development Fund EPA Economic Partnership Agreement EU European Union LDC Least Developed Country NAO National Authorising