The EC Commission is opposed to a one-year first phase

At a meeting with European civil society groups on October 3rd the European Commission announced that it could not agree to a proposal by the ACP Group to divide the negotiations into two phases, with the first phase lasting one year. The Commission expressed the view that the best way to pursue negotiations was in a flexible manner, dealing with different regions as they are ready. Comment: This disagreement has important implications: it could easily fragment the ACP Group and allow the Commission to force the pace of negotiations in certain regions, and subsequently use the 'progress' made to lever similar concessions from ACP countries in other regions. This could well lead to ACP countries being called on to sign up to largely pre-determined economic partnership agreements which bear little relationship to national and regional realities in very different ACP regions.At a meeting with European civil society groups on October 3rd..