The implementation of the Cotonou agreement has been extended until December 2020. The agreement was originally due to expire in February 2020, but as negotiations on the future agreement are still ongoing, this has been delayed until the end of the year. The EU funds most of its development programmes for ACP countries through the European Development Fund (EDF). These funds are not part of the EU`s overall budget. They are subject to internal agreement between the Member States meeting in the Council. The EU will work towards a comprehensively revised agreement, based on a common basis at THE ACP level, in conjunction with three bespoke regional partnerships for Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. However, some provisions of the Cotonou Agreement on Political Cooperation have never been implemented, such as Article 97, which provides for dialogue and sanctions against corrupt regimes. « This is a weakness of the agreement, » admits a French diplomatic source. The ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly is an advisory body made up equally of representatives from the EU and ACP countries. The Assembly promotes democratic processes and facilitates a better understanding between the peoples of the EU and those of the ACP countries. Issues related to development and the ACP-EU partnership, including economic partnership agreements, will also be discussed.
The Cotonou Agreement has governed cooperation between the European Union and the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) since 2000. Given the start of negotiations on the successor, the results so far appear to be mixed. EURACTIV France. The continent-to-continent approach does not make a recipe: Contradictory messages from both sides and no enthusiasm in North Africa Emmanuel De Groof and Jean Bossuyt, ECDPM paper, May 2019 The future agreement should cover priority areas such as: several countries, such as Nigeria, still refuse to sign the EPA, because they believe that these agreements will be concluded at the expense of European competition. Due to the lack of consensus on the issue of migration, Member States are unable to agree on a mandate to begin negotiations on the future partnership agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. EURACTIV.fr report The high-level dialogue between the Pacific States of the Africa, Caribbean, Pacific Group (ACP) and the European Commissioner for International Development and Cooperation, Neven Mimica, was held in Apia, Samoa, on 26 February 2019. At the meeting, the HEADS of state and government of the ACP Pacific set out the following priorities: in July 2014, 16 West African states, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) reached an agreement with the EU.