“EUphoria in the Pacific?” Regional Economic Partnership Agreements – Implications for the Pacific

Regional integration has once again been placed squarely on the agenda of the Pacific island countries. The European Union, through the negotiation of regional Economic Partnership Agreements, is actively engaged in fostering sub regional integration processes. The release of the Eminent Persons ’ Group review of the Pacific Islands Forum in April 2004 has also placed regional solutions to the problems of development in the Pacific at the forefront of reform. These processes raise a number of questions about integration in the context of the Pacific. This paper will explore the potential for the EU’s EPA framework to be applied to the Pacific. The core questions it seeks to deal with are to what extent the Pacific, as the EU defines it, constitutes a region, and likewise whether the Pacific can be said to be an economic region. Consequently, who the Pacific region exists for is a fundamental principle behind understanding how integration has and will be shaped in the region, by the EU and others