The ACP Group and the EU Development Partnership


Book Description

This book constitutes a systematic and critical assessment of the nature, evolution, and prospects of the development partnership between the 79-member African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) group of states and the 28-member European Union (EU). A core theme that runs through the work is that the ACP’s partnership with the EU remains an important framework for addressing development challenges in the African, Caribbean, and Pacific regions, but needs to adapt to changes in the global political economy, as well as internal developments in both the ACP and the EU, to sustain its relevance and effectiveness. This is crucial for the ACP group, in particular, given its origins in, and core focus on, development cooperation with Europe. The authors in this volume examine the history of the ACP-EU partnership since 1975; the EU’s relationship with the African, Caribbean, and Pacific regions individually; ACP experiences with economic partnership agreements with the EU; and new political issues, in particular, security, migration, and diasporas. Shedding light on the future prospects of this relationship, this book will be of interest to both scholars and policymakers working on the ACP-EU relationship and related development issues, including trade, aid, security, and migration.




The European Union and the Developing Countries


Book Description

Authors from different backgrounds (including law, political science and economics) analyze the forces that gave rise to the new agreement as well as the negotiating process of the new agreement, and the negotiations that are taking place to produce the planned Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) that are to replace the existing non-reciprocal trade preferences that are incompatible with WTO law.




The New EU-ACP Partnership


Book Description




Realizing the Right to Development


Book Description

This book is devoted to the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development. It contains a collection of analytical studies of various aspects of the right to development, which include the rule of law and good governance, aid, trade, debt, technology transfer, intellectual property, access to medicines and climate change in the context of an enabling environment at the local, regional and international levels. It also explores the issues of poverty, women and indigenous peoples within the theme of social justice and equity. The book considers the strides that have been made over the years in measuring progress in implementing the right to development and possible ways forward to make the right to development a reality for all in an increasingly fragile, interdependent and ever-changing world.




The European Union in Africa


Book Description

The European Union in Africa: Incoherent policies, asymmetrical partnership, declining relevance? provides a comprehensive analysis of EU-Africa relations since the beginning of the twenty-first century and includes contributions from leading experts in the field of EU external relations. It seeks to explain how the relationship evolved through discussion of a number of different policies and agreements, ranging from established areas such as aid, agriculture, trade and security, to new areas such as migration, climate change, energy and social policies. This book successfully challenges a number of widely-held assumptions on the role of the EU in Africa, and at the same time sheds light on the role and identity of the EU in the international arena. It will be of great interest to students and scholars in the field of EU external relations as well as practitioners of international development.




Beyond Market Access for Economic Development


Book Description

Starting from the observation that the establishment of free trade as such will substantially impact upon economic development, the different contributions focus on the potential contribution of non-traditional aspects of EPAs.




African Agency in International Politics


Book Description

This book analyses the rapidly increasing role of African states, leaders and other political actors in international politics in the 21st Century. In contrast to the conventional approach of studying how external actors impacted on Africa’s international relations, this book seeks to open up a new approach, focusing on the impact of African political actors on international politics. It does this by analysing African agency – the degree to which African political actors have room to manoeuvre within the international system and exert influence internationally, and the uses they make of that room for manoeuvre. Bringing together leading scholars from Africa and Europe to explore the role and conception of African Agency, this book addresses a wide range of issues, from relations with western and non-western donors, Africa’s role in the UN and World Trade Organisation, negotiations over climate change, trade agreements with the European Union, regional diplomatic strategies, the character and extent of African state agency, and agency within corporate social responsibility initiatives. African Agency in International Politics will be of interest to scholars and students of Africa’s international relations, African politics, development, geography, diplomacy, trade, the environment, political science and security studies.




EU Development Cooperation


Book Description

The authors of this text assess why EU development policy has become largely ineffective, citing as reasons the liberalization of trade and the growing influence of US and international players such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund upon EU policy.




The CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement


Book Description

The CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement is a sui generis North-South trade and development agreement. The C-EPA is a bi-regional agreement, signed in Bridgetown, Barbados in October 2008, with the specific aim of supporting the sustainable development of the Caribbean. As a paradigm changer in the ACP-EU trade relationship, the C-EPA has unsurprisingly attracted considerable attention. The long process of ratification by twenty-seven EU Member States and fifteen Caribbean countries has begun, and implementation is advancing after an initial delay. This book is the first detailed analysis of the Agreement's provisions, including its negotiating history and prognosis of its future potential. It is written by fifteen Caribbean and European practitioners, most of whom actively contributed to the crafting of the Agreement as CARIFORUM or EU negotiators. The contributions cover the following: ; charting a dual approach to CARIFORUM commitments at both regional and national levels; establishing an architecture of commitments that seeks to support CARIFORUM regional integration; safeguarding Caribbean preferential access to the EU market; broadening the ambit of the Caribbean-EU relationship, as reflected in the Cotonou Agreement, into new trade disciplines; highlighting key drivers in the negotiations; addressing the CARICOM-Dominican Republic economic relationship; examining the special treatment of Haiti; and reviewing the C-EPA's compatibility with WTO rules.




Sustainable Development in Africa-Eu Relations


Book Description

The European Union has been one of the most vocal advocates of 'sustainable development', particularly in its dealings with developing countries. Even prior to the formulation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the EU has insisted upon the need for sustainable approaches to poverty reduction and economic growth in the Global South. When examining EU relations with African countries as part of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, however, it becomes clear that the translation of Europe's sustainability discourse into practice is highly problematic. Notably, there are concerns that the EU's free market approach to development - embodied in its EPA trade deals - is incompatible with genuine, pro-poor forms of sustainable growth. Moreover, the EU is often seen as a hegemonic actor whose trade and aid interventions in Africa often do more to perpetuate poverty than to ameliorate it. This book casts a critical light on Africa-EU relations with regards to the EU's sustainability pledges. It does this through looking at an array of issues - not least trade, aid, the environment, and democratic institutions. In this vein, the book poses a challenge to EU trade and development discourse in the era of the UN SDGs. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue in Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal.