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Proposals on the future ACP-EU Framework Agreement as presented to the ACP Ambassadorial spokesmen on 10 June 1999 and to the EU Member States representatives on 16 June 1999

In view of our aim to contribute towards the formulation a new ACP-EU Agreement aimed at poverty eradication and sustainable development we set out below some proposals in a number of areas that we believe would help the next agreement to contribute to the agreed objectives. These proposals seek to take account of progress made thus far in the ongoing ACP-EU negotiations.

Political and Institutional Issues

Effective co-operation demands a framework that guarantees a transparent and open political process in which the potential beneficiaries can be informed of the proposals and their expected outcomes. This is necessary at all levels of the agreement – national, regional as well as at the overall level.

First and foremost this transparency needs to be established in the principal decision making body – the Joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers vis-à-vis the other actors of the ACP-EU partnership and its beneficiaries. While the Central Negotiating Group's proposal to open up the Joint Council of Ministers to civil society is welcome it may only provide for a narrow participation of civil society that is not necessarily representative of the broad and diverse interests of the different sectors of societies that are affected by the co-operation agreement. In order to address this we propose:

• The establishment of a joint ACP-EU Intergovernmental Political Assembly that is open to all accredited observers and the public. The members of this Assembly, who would be the contracting parties to the agreement, would use the Assembly to take decisions on the broad framework of the agreement. Such an Assembly would ensure a level of access to the decision making process that could maximise an open and transparent approach to the agreement and its implementation.
• The Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly’s parliamentary function as a monitoring body should be strengthened, so as to make the major ACP-EU decision making bodies of the agreement more accountable to the Joint Assembly. This would bring the Joint Assembly more in line with the expected and legitimate role of the Parliaments with respect to the executive bodies to which they relate.

Civil Society Participation

We have noted with concern the constant postponement within the negotiations of discussions on effective civil society participation. Both the ACP and the EU have agreed that civil society participation is essential to the achievement of the overall goal of the ACP-EU relationship.

We believe that the next framework agreement should not only acknowledge the role of civil society in development processes, but give explicit recognition to the central role that civil society plays in partnership with the official contracting partners to the EU-ACP co-operation agreement. This requires a clearly stated provision for effective civil society participation. While recognising that in the overall framework agreement it may be difficult to define specific mechanisms for such participation, the principles on which civil society participation at national and regional levels of the agreement should be spelt out in the overall ACP-EU agreement. Such principles need to include:

• A clear commitment and expectation that civil society will be invited to participate in all phases of the programming process.

• A clear definition of civil society's role in each phase of the programming process.

• The establishment and effective implementation of a policy for disclosure to the public by the ACP and EU decision-makers on all proposals made in all phases of programming.

• The establishment of mechanisms at national and regional levels for enabling civil society involvement at all levels of the agreement’s implementation. Such mechanisms should be acceptable to all parties concerned. Resources for these processes should be identified and programmed.

In addition to these principles we propose that:

• The next Agreement should make provision for a mechanism to enable intended beneficiaries of ACP-EU programmes, that is individuals and communities in ACP countries, to have their complaints independently and promptly assessed. It is worth noting that the last ACP-EU Joint Assembly's resolution on civil society participation called for such a body to be set up.

Social Development

Social development is widely recognised to be central to any strategy for development. In its broader context this not only includes the goals of providing universal access to basic social services, but also to strengthening capacity of community based organisations, and support for sustainable income generating activities for local communities, especially for people living in poverty of whom the majority are women. Access to income, education and health care are fundamental human rights. According to the World Bank, UNDP, and many other development institutions, investing in people - for instance, investing in primary education for girls also increases the economic potential of a country.

The nature of the ACP-EU co-operation has great potential for achieving social development with its emphasis of the concepts of partnership and policy dialogue. These fit well, for instance, with the contractual nature of efforts by both donors and recipient governments that are needed to achieve universal access to basic social services.

In order to effectively realise this potential we call for the following:

• The overall co-operation agreement between the EU and ACP should specifically identify the role that it should play in achieving the international commitments that have been made by the EU and its Member States, and ACP governments at the international level. These should be included as specific objectives of the co-operation agreement, and not merely be recognised as providing a context for the agreement.

• Strategies for advancing social development need to be explicitly identified within the agreement. These should include the aim for universal access to social services being a central objective and targets in the next generation of development co-operation agreements between the EU, the ACP countries and other developing nations. The text of the agreement must be explicit on this point. In the programming phase explicit contributions to achieving this must be identified.

• The ACP and the EU should seek to involve local communities and organisations of civil society in the design, provision and monitoring of these basic services, in order to improve their quality and effectiveness.

• The ACP and the EU should provide adequate reports and data on their efforts to contribute to achieving basic social services for the poor.

The objectives of the agreement between the EU and the ACP should include:

• The eradication of poverty, agreed at the UN Summit for Social Development;

• The empowerment of women, the objective of the Beijing Platform for Action;

• The full realisation of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including women's rights, agreed at the UN Summit for Human Rights.

• A reduction by one-half in the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015;

• Universal primary education in all countries by 2015;

• Demonstrated progress towards gender equality and the empowerment of women by eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005;

• A reduction by two-thirds in the mortality rates for infants and children under age five and a reduction by three-fourths in maternal mortality, all by 2015;

• Access through the primary health-care system to reproductive health services for all individuals of appropriate ages as soon as possible and not later than the year 2015.

• An explicit reference should be made to investment in relevant quality education as being a primary means by which the central objectives of the Convention can be achieved and as the foundation on which other development strategies (e.g. private sector development, trade agreements) must be built. There should be a guarantee for the participation of people living in poverty, and their representative organisations, in education sector planning. An increased investment in and commitment to basic education paying equal attention to formal and non-formal systems with a specific commitment to increasing the access of women and girls.

Poverty Eradication and Gender

Although both the EU and the ACP recognise that social and economic development cannot be secured in a sustainable way without the participation of women, this is not often translated comprehensively within the overall texts of co-operation agreements. An effective approach to gender requires its thoughtful inclusion in all parts of the agreement. We believe that EU and ACP commitments need to be translated into clear and practical plans for action, which can be monitored in future so as to see whether the goals of the new agreement are reached.

We set out below nine central points to help achieve greater gender equality in the agreement between the EU and the ACP. Each of these proposals is directly based on commitments that have already been agreed in the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women.

• Gender issues are qualitatively different from youth issues and they need to be separated. A separate heading for gender issues should highlight the principles, objectives, goals and the approach of the new agreement.

• The principles should bind parties to protect women's rights as human rights, including reproductive rights. The term 'fundamental rights', used by Group 2, does not have a proper legal definition. Parties should ratify the Convention against the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women and review reservations made with ratification of the Convention.

• The approach of the Convention should be that gender is a crosscutting issue and will, therefore, be based on 'mainstreaming'. It will define this approach as integrating gender equality concerns "at every level of action; aid programming, macro-economic policy support (notably on the basis of impact analyses), support for social and productive sectors, programmes and projects ".

• Clearly, the approach of mainstreaming needs to be implemented in the framework agreement itself. This means that the new agreement should not only make mere general statements relating to gender mainstreaming, but it should do this wherever relevant in the next agreement. The actions agreed to should be sufficiently specific so that their implementation can be monitored.

• Sound political and macro-economic environment forms the basis for the advancement of women. Therefore, mainstreaming of gender issues should be implemented in social policy areas as well as in the political and macro-economic enabling environment

• The agreement should refer throughout the text to 'sustainable social development'. The agreement must contribute to the establishment of national policies, which ensure that all people have adequate economic and social protection during unemployment, ill health, maternity, disability and old age.

• The agreements between the EU and the ACP on trade should be based explicitly on the objective that the parties "seek to ensure that national policies related to international and regional trade agreements do not have an adverse impact on women's new and traditional economic activities." Trade between the EU and the ACP can not be based on reciprocity. Small and medium sized producers, the majority of which are women, can not compete with an influx of EU imports.

• Women living in poverty are particularly vulnerable in a financial crisis, as caretakers of their families, among others because financial crisis leads to increases in food prices. Financial crises also dramatically increase unemployment. The new agreement should promote stable monetary policies. The parties should agree measures to resolve the onerous debt problem of ACP countries. Introduction of the Tobin Tax, an international taxation on capital transfers to discourage portfolio investment and speculation, should be discussed in the context of political co-operation between the parties.

• Women living in poverty should be empowered in the context of the future agreement through organisation and participation. Women should be encouraged and strengthened to take decisions and implement them through support to local community projects that facilitate their active participation in efforts to eradicate poverty. Gender equality concerns must be integrated in the planning, implementation and evaluation of all policies and programmes.

The EU proposal for Regional Economic Partnership Agreements (REPAs) remains the principal proposal on trade for the future agreement. We have repeatedly expressed our concern about the proposals, particularly as set out in its current form by the EU, as we believe that it disproportionately favours the EU. We continually believe that alternative proposals need to be identified, in which the model of non-reciprocal trade preferences the EU are recognised, taking into account the structural and economic differences between ACP countries and regions and the EU.

• The EU and the ACP states should strive for a further 10-year’s waiver for the Lomé preferential trade regime in the WTO.

• The EU should press jointly with the ACP states for a reform of GATT article XXIV, in order to bring about regional non-reciprocal trade agreements between structurally and economically dissimilar groups of countries.

• The EU should actively promote autonomous political and economic integration within the ACP regions (financial resources, capacity building, institutional support etc.), without exerting political pressure on the shaping and implementation of such integration. This should imply a ten-year build up of the economic and financial base of the regions, of regional institutions, and of capacity building within the member states of such economic regions.

• The basic prerequisite for a European North-South Policy which takes into account the developmental interests of the South, is the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, the reduction of subsidies for excess production, and the further improvement of the market access for agricultural products from the South.

• The new Lomé convention should be flanked by far-reaching debt cancellation for the ACP states. These should in particular take the burden from the highly indebted poor countries and go beyond the present HIPC initiative.

• The ACP countries should be enabled to carry out an independent investment policy, including development oriented performance requirements and capital flow controls. In order to prevent an adjustment race to the bottom, the EU should require foreign investment to adhere to consistent social, human rights and ecological standards. Moreover, the creation of further export processing zones which tend to disempower local citizens, to negate basic social rights to workers and to undermine the tax base of public authorities, should be discouraged.

• The EU should agree on binding standards for European enterprises, which are active in developing countries, as they were proposed by the European Parliament in January 1999. A corresponding, legally binding code of conduct for transnational concerns should be taken into consideration in the future co-operation agreement between the EU and the ACP states.

Finance and Instruments

We have noted that the negotiations in this area have stalled due to disagreements over the simplification of financial instruments and the criteria for aid allocation. Our concerns here relate to mainly the quantity and quality of aid.

We propose that for the next agreement:

• Both parties should agree that the simplification of financial instruments should not in any way result in a reduction of resources for the next financial protocol. The level of resources agreed should be adequate for the implementation of the international commitments made by ACP and EU governments. This is especially important in the light of the demands that will be made of EU governments to foot the bill of reconstruction in the Balkans.

• Criteria for aid allocation should be clear and transparent to all parties to the agreement and should allow for the implementation of the international commitments.

June 1999

Updated on 1 July 1999
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