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.
policy has been built over time. Until the 1990s, the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states unequivocally were Europe’s most preferred developing country partners, and ACP–EU relations were the most visible and important component of the EU development cooperation programme. ACP–EU relations started at the very creation of the European Economic Community in 1957 and were elaborated first in the Yaoundé and then in the Lomé Conventions and the 2000 Cotonou Agreement. In many peoples’ eyes the Lomé Convention came to symbolise EU development cooperation, more so
post from the beginning of 1958 through to 1976, when he resigned after a conflict with Cheysson (a French socialist with greater powers of forward thinking) that was almost predestined – a clash of rival development philosophies. Ferrandi’s universe was entirely confined to French-speaking Africa, and he adjusted badly to the world of Lomé and more so to that of development policy. In contrast, the Lomé Convention was the Commission’s high water mark in development policy. It was admired for the achievement, not only within Europe and among the developing countries
EUD2 10/28/03 2:39 PM Page 17 2 From uniqueness to uniformity? An assessment of EU development aid policies William Brown Introduction European Union development cooperation stretches back as far as the EU itself but for many years its most visible and important component was the relationship with the ACP states institutionalised in the Lomé Convention. Right from its inception, the Lomé Convention was claimed to be unique, either because of the formal terms of the agreement, the context in which it was first negotiated or – the focus of this chapter
EUD9 10/28/03 3:16 PM Page 149 9 Conclusions: the potential and limits of EU development cooperation policy Karin Arts and Anna K. Dickson On 23 June 2000 the Cotonou Agreement was signed, replacing the twentyfive-year-old Lomé Convention. There was a distinct feeling of change in Cotonou and the new Agreement is seen as radically overhauling its predecessors and setting a new basis for partnership between the ACP and EU states. It is too early to provide in-depth analysis of the Cotonou Agreement, not least because in many ways Cotonou provides a kind of
to the principles of economic liberalism. Finally, a case study of the Banana Protocol is offered as an example of the type of choice with which the EU is faced. The experience of the banana dispute in the WTO is symbolic as it demonstrates that the substantive interests at stake in the CAP and the commitment to trade liberalisation override concerns about development and the socioeconomic costs of losing trade preferences for the ACP. The dominance of the market economy and the influence of the neo-liberal economic agenda in the EU The 1975 Lomé Convention
specific link with Africa, especially initially, can be understood as an expression of France’s will. The Lomé Convention was long considered to be an embodiment of the New International Economic Order: political neutrality of the EC, equality of the partners, interdependence and mutual interests, non-reciprocal trade preferences, additional aid, joint management of aid and new cooperation instruments (Stabex) were the innovative and promising principles that structured that model of North–South relationship. However, this supposedly new relationship still relied on a
broad processes of consultation took place before major policy changes were finally decided upon. Examples include the consultations on the November 1996 Green Paper (CEC, 1996) the civil society input into the subsequent broader debate on the future of the Lomé Convention, and the preparatory process of the April 2000 Commission ‘Communication on the European Community’s Development Policy’. In the latter, the Commission stated that it now ‘considers civil society one of the key pillars of its development policy’ (CEC, 2000a: 28). In order to involve civil society
until the 1970s that the EU developed a policy that covered Latin American countries as part of a general approach to the EU’s external relations agenda by including Caribbean countries in the Lome Convention that was pursued by the UK when it became a member of the EU. From the creation of the EU until 1985, relations between the EU and Latin America were virtually non-existent. A new scenario was created for EU–Latin America relations after Spain and Portugal joined the EU. The attempt by Spain and Portugal to influence in the EU in relation to Latin America and the
common policies which had consequences for the position of the EC as an international actor. From the late 1950s until the early 1980s, it was even considered as one of the ‘cornerstones’ of European integration (Lister, 1997: 22). As late as 1996, the Commission described the Lomé Convention as ‘one of the most important facets of the European Union’s external activities’ (CEC, 1996: 1). Even though the Lomé Conventions and the more recent Cotonou Agreement cover countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, there is no doubt that Sub-Saharan Africa is the most