Beyond Lomé IV
Future Relations between the EU and the ACP Countries

NGO Discussion Document, March 1997

Chapter 7 - Recommendations and options to explore

1. Recommended Principles for the ACP-EU Relationship

The European Union's future relations with the countries of the ACP Group should be based on the objectives for development cooperation contained in Article 130u of the Maastricht Treaty: to foster sustainable economic and social development, the smooth and gradual integration of developing countries in the global economy, the campaign against poverty, to contribute to the development and consolidation of democracy and the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Among these objectives, overriding priority should go to poverty eradication.

There is consistent evidence that the people of Europe want a generous and effective programme of European Community development cooperation. This public support will only be sustained if the Community can prove that it is effective in transforming poor people's lives through securing the human rights to food, security, health and education, and increasing their opportunity to live fulfilling lives.

Furthermore, the EU's future relations with ACP countries should aim to implement the commitments made by both the EU and the ACP governments to the agreements made at the United Nations conferences at Rio, Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Instanbul and Rome. The reciprocal nature of these commitments is critical to successful implementation.

Specifically, future EU/ACP relations should start from a commitment to promoting and protecting women's human rights in accordance with international human rights conventions, like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the 1993 UN Declaration on Elimination of Violence against Women.

The achievement of gender equality and gender justice should be adopted as a fundamental principle, alongside respect for human rights, democratic principles, consolidation of the rule of law and good governance. These principles should guide the discussions on partnership with the ACP, the socio-economic, institutional and trade and investment dimensions of future cooperation, the criteria for aid allocation and the management of aid.

The challenges of the 21st century require that future EU/ACP relations are based on the principles of partnership, mutual respect and transparency. Of necessity, this demands an honest acknowledgement of diversity, shared problems and the contribution each can make to the poverty eradication and for greater social, economic and political justice worldwide.

Policy coherence on the part of the EU is essential to the new partnership. The EU's declared policies on poverty eradication, promoting sustainable development, integrating gender issues and so on, can only succeed in the context of coherence across all aspects of the EU's relations with the South - development cooperation, trade, agriculture, fisheries, foreign and security affairs. The indicator for this policy coherence should be the well-being of the poorest women, men and children in ACP countries.

There are a number of factors which should be taken into account in future EU/ACP trade and investment cooperation and arrangements:

a) the declared goal of poverty eradication and sustainable development;

b) the understanding that more than 80% of ACP countries' export earnings come from commodities (including oil) which have declining terms of trade;

c) the need to build the capacity to benefit from preferences in Lomé and WTO arrangements;

d) respect for the Lomé trade principles;

e) the desirability of the efficient and appropriate use of trade and investment instruments;

f) the necessity of using gender analysis to ensure trade and investment cooperation and arrangements reduce gender-based inequality and ensure access by the poorest women to market opportunities.

2. Options to explore for implementing these principles

Investing in social development

A generous and effective development cooperation programme would focus on:

a) the basic social services identified in the 20:20 compact such as basic education and primary health care (including reproductive health), nutrition programmes and safe drinking water and sanitation, as well as the strengthening of local institutional capacity to deliver these services.

b) support to income-generating activities for the poor in rural areas and the urban informal sector including small-scale credit facilities, training, technical and marketing assistance; public investment/employment schemes to generate socially productive jobs that progressively transfer ownership of assets to the unemployed; and investment in local agricultural production and food security systems combined with land reform measures targeted at poor women and men.

c) strengthening social and civil organisations, for example farmers' associations, women's organisations, co-operatives, trade unions, human rights organisations, to help increase their influence in policy decision and their ability to access resources and secure their basic social and economic rights. In particular, the important social, economic and political struggles of women in Southern countries to enhance the development of their countries should be recognised and strengthened.

d) investing in local institutional capacity in order to help poor countries implement effective social and economic development strategies for the poor.

EU aid should give priority in its aid programmes to countries whose governments make a mutual commitment to achieving the objectives in the basic social services set out in the 20:20 compact.

The EU should take as its starting point the implementation of its 1995 policy, Integrating gender issues in European development cooperation.

Similarly, the EU should press the International Financial Institutions to introduce effective social conditionality so that the disbursement of structural adjustment loans is made conditional on government action to improve universal access to basic services, including withdrawal of user fees.

Policy coherence

The following practical steps would greatly enhance policy coherence:

a) an annual report on policy coherence by the European Commission to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament;

b) an inter-service group on coherence;

c) a complaints mechanism through which concrete cases of incoherence can be reported by concerned parties;

d) an annual hearing in the European Parliament

e) the possibility should be explored of Codes of Conduct covering different areas of policy coherence, starting with fisheries agreements

Fostering democracy, good governance and respect for human rights

The EU's policy on democracy and good governance should be clarified and deepened; in particular, this policy agenda must be analysed from a gender perspective.

A broader view of democracy would see democracy as a process rather than an event, and would emphasize participative, open, accountable and transparent decision-making on social, economic and political affairs at every level (local to international) with decisions taken at the most appropriate level. The indivisibility of human rights - civil, political, social, economic and cultural, as accepted at the UN Human Rights Conference in Vienna in 1993, should be taken as a basis.

Trade and investment

The reformed or new instruments and principles that should be considered are:

A) A separate export earning stabilization and diversification instrument with a fund for each country

B) Political partnership on trade policies

The political dialogue at all levels between the EU and the ACP should fully cover trade policy so that the partners are aware of each other's interests, problems and strategies before coming to the WTO and other fora.

C) A joint ACP-EU anti-dumping mechanism

D) Measures under EU's responsibility

The EU should carry out a range of steps including improving the coherence and consistency of its policies, implementing its WTO commitments to developing countries and controlling damaging behaviour by EU transnationals.

E) A positive role for human rights body of the Joint Assembly on trade and investment issues

F) In the choice of options concerning preferences and protocols, each of the ACP countries should not be worse off than under Lomé IV.

G) The arrangements should address the real causes of the lack of foreign and domestic investment and tackle issues like infrastructure and small-scale credit

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Updated on April 3, 1997
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