Legal aspects of cooperation between the EU and ACP countries

Legal aspects of cooperation between the EU and ACP countries The origins of the EU cooperation with the group of Sub-saharan African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP Group) date back to the very beginnings of the European integration with Part IV of the Treaty of Rome establishing association of the former colonies of the several founding member states to the European Economic Community. After the colonies gained their independence, their association to the EEC was given a basis of the international law by means of the conventions from Yaoundé (1963, 1969) and Lomé (1975, 1980, 1985, 1990 - revised in 1995). The cooperation between the EC/EU and ACP countries has progressively evolved into a comprehensive partnership encompassing the political, development and economic cooperation. The relations between the EU and 78 ACP countries are actually ruled by the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (2000, revised in 2005 and 2010) which is to be in force until 2020. The EU-ACP partnership constitutes a specific system of international law and probably can be described as the most comprehensive relationship between developed and developing countries. In many ways, the cooperation with the ACP countries represents a special case in the field of the EU external relations and, due to a specific historical..