PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE MEMBERS OF THE AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC GROUP OF STATES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION - A NEW WAY FOR ECONOMIC INTEGRATION?

On the 23rd o f June 2000 in Cotonou, Benin, a new convention was concluded for the contracted period of 20 years: Partnership Agreement between the Members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States of the Part, and the European Community and its member states, of the other Part. This Convention opens a new stage o f cooperation between ACP and EU countries, strengthened by the Lome agreements so far. The author attempts to answer the question whether it is correct to consider the new agreement to be a breakthrough in the mutual relations between these country groups, and whether it in effect broke up with the form of cooperation as determined by the Lome conventions. The article also presents a discussion on how the mutual relations between EU and ACP countries have been affected and how they have adapted themselves to the new conditions of the world economy. Despite declarative goals, a practical implementation of the convention stipulations is by no means an easy task, in particular in the view of the following sensitive aspects: - Insufficient knowledge and limited opportunities to gain enough know-how necessary to carry out complex tasks on the local, national, and regional level; limited managing skills for such instruments as programme over-gearing and budgeting; - Vague description in the convention given for particular engagement and participation procedures for non-governmental entities in the development policy implementation; lack of executive procedures; - Need to make concessions in order to create Economic Partnership Agreements or not participate in the commercial policy; - Internal EC reforms and the prospect of accepting new community members overlapping with the time of the Cotonou agreement, which in effect can pile up additional difficulties in the relations with the ACP countries