At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the European Union (EU) stands out as an important regional organization. This book focuses on the influence of the World Bank on the EU development cooperation policy, with special emphasis on the Lomé Convention. It explains the influence of trade liberalisation on EU trade preferences and provides a comparative analysis of the content and direction of the policies developed towards the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP), the Mediterranean, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. It looks at the trade-related directorates and their contribution to the phenomenon referred as 'trade liberalisation'. This includes trends towards the removal or elimination of trade preferences and the ideology underlying this reflected in and created by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organisation (GATT/WTO). The book examines the role of the mass media because the media are supposed to play a unique role in encouraging political reactions to humanitarian emergencies. The bolting on to development 'policy' of other continents, and the separate existence of a badly run Humanitarian Office (ECHO), brought the lie to the Maastricht Treaty telling us that the EU really had a coherent development policy. The Third World in general, and Africa in particular, are becoming important components in the EU's efforts to develop into a significant international player. The Cotonou Agreement proposes to end the preferential trade margins accorded to non-least developed ACP states in favour of more liberal free trade agreements strongly shaped by the WTO agenda.
itself became an increasing embarrassment and slowly slid down the scale of Commission priorities. The bolting on to development ‘policy’ of other continents, and the separate existence of a badly run Humanitarian Office (ECHO), brought the lie to the Maastricht Treaty telling us that the EU really had a coherent development policy. Much has been devoted to burying Lomé without appearing to do so. By Lomé IV in 1990 it was arguably brain-dead, if a Convention can so be. Yet it was renewed for a further ambitious ten years, and not five as before. Cotonou capped that in
external (mainly political/security) relations DG Enlargement, along with the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and the newly created EUROPE AID, both of which deal with the allocation, disbursement and assessment of aid to third countries. The various external relations commissioners meet regularly to coordinate Commission positions. In 1996 the Commission produced a discussion paper on the future of ACP–EU relations. Commonly referred to as ‘the Green Paper’ (CEC, 1997), the text marked the start of a fundamental shift in the Commission position on Lomé