1. ACP AND EU MINISTERS CONCLUDE NEGOTIATIONS - COMPROMISE REACHED ON MIGRATION
ACP and EU Ministers appear to have concluded their one and a half-year long negotiations on drafting a new framework partnership agreement, with the conclusion of the fourth ACP-EU Ministerial Negotiations Meeting in the late hours of Thursday, 4 February.
Migration
It had earlier been feared that difficulties over migration questions would block the whole agreement. Though official conclusions of the meeting are not yet available, according to unconfirmed sources, this issue was resolved satisfactorily for both parties.
Prior to this week’s meeting a draft article on migration included a bracketed clause proposed by the EU, stating that each party (the ACP or the EU) would under an obligation of the agreement readmit nationals from other countries or stateless persons travelling from their territories if these persons were found to be illegally residing in the other party’s territory. The ACP along with several development and migration organisations and legal experts specialised in migration had described this clause as unjust. However right up to yesterday’s meeting some EU Member States were claiming that this clause was non-negotiable, and were prepared to see the whole agreement collapse rather than rephrase or remove this clause. According to certain EU sources, the EU’s determination to push the abovementioned clause in the ACP Agreement stemmed from an earlier agreement by the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, last December, to adopt this clause as ‘standard’ for all EU agreements with third parties. The ACP however pointed out that this clause appears in a much less strict form in other EU agreements with third countries, such as that with Egypt.
It now seems that the EU, late into the negotiations proposed, a compromise whereby the issue would be dealt with in bilateral agreements with individual ACP countries. A provisional text provided to journalists at the close of the negotiations indicates that the controversial clause on readmission is replaced with the following text,
“At the request of a Party, negotiations shall be initiated with ACP States aiming at concluding in good faith and with due regard for the relevant rules of international law, bilateral agreements governing specific obligations for the readmission and return of their nationals. These agreements shall cover, if deemed necessary by any of the Parties, arrangements for the readmission of third country nationals and stateless persons. Such agreements will lay down the details about the categories of persons covered by these arrangements as well as the modalities of their readmission and return.”
A further paragraph also seems to have been inserted into the article on migration calling on the parties to consider that partnership in relation to migration implies fair treatment of third country nationals, inter alia, and developing measures against racism and xenophobia. The text provided for journalists also indicates that new wording would be introduced into the draft preamble of the agreement referring to racial discrimination, the 1954 Convention relating to the status stateless persons, the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and the 1967 New York Protocol also on the status of refugees.
Trade
In the provisional text provided, the negotiators on trade seem to have agreed to two Joint Declarations, to be attached to the new Agreement. The first Declaration states that the Community shall not discriminate between ACP States in the agreed trade regime, taking account however of specific autonomous initiatives in the multilateral context such as the EU’s decision to provide duty free access to essentially all products from all Least Developed Countries, including those outside the ACP. The second Declaration states that the EU and the ACP agree to examine all necessary measures to maintain the competitive position of the ACP in EU markets during the transition period towards new trade arrangements. This may include several non-tariff measures relating to the rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary procedures and the implementation of specific measures addressing supply side constraints in ACP countries. To this end, a Ministerial Trade Committee should make recommendations on the basis of a review prepared by the European Commission and ACP Secretariat. These recommendations will be examined by the EU Council on the basis of a proposal from the Commission. The Council thus calls on the Commission to carry out necessary impact assessments of other EU measures on ACP-EU trade. Eurostep have called on the EU to improve market access for the products in which all ACP countries trade rather just ‘essentially’ all products. The reason for this is that ‘essentially’ all products could imply the exclusion of some of the agricultural products, which are so vital to the ACP.
The negotiators also revised an article on Intellectual Property Rights to include a reference to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Other Issues
The negotiators agreed on, either new articles or declarations on, the following issues: food security, the rules of origin, rum, rice, fisheries, investment financing and promotion, economic sector development, export revenue fluctuations on vulnerable island and land locked states, and tourism. On the duration of the new agreement, while there is no confirmation on what was agreed, some EU officials were stating, this week, that the EU could agree to an Agreement of about 20 years. You may recall that last December the EU had limited the duration of the new Agreement to 15 years. However the ACP had found this unsatisfactory, as it seemed to imply that the EU would not be able to implement new trade arrangements as gradually as it had promised, i.e. their full implementation only occurring in about 23+ years from now. The total financial package of € 13.5 billion proposed by the EU seems to have remained unchanged.
Eurostepwill carry out an early analysis of the Agreement reached as soon as this becomes possible. Documents on the Agreement, amended articles and declarations are available on request from the Secretariat for Eurostep members. For more information contact the Eurostep Secretariat.
2. CONCLUSIONS OF THE EU COUNCIL DEBATE ON EU AFRICA PARTNERSHIP
The Portuguese Presidency of the EU has prepared unofficial conclusions on the EU Informal Development Council (28-29 January, Lisbon), which focussed on a new EU-Africa Partnership. The conclusions state that the situation in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa calls for an enhanced strategic partnership between the EU and Africa. This should involve an integrated approach taking account of political, security, economic and developmental dimensions. To this effect, the Council meeting identified common views on a number of issues, including: a) the need to strengthen political dialogue between the EU and Africa; b) the importance of promoting regional and sub-regional cooperation and integration; c) the need to support capacity-building in the field of conflict prevention, crisis management and peacekeeping; d) the need to develop a deeper understanding of African societies and the structural causes of different conflict situations; e) the importance of reinforcing the proper functioning of state institutions and civil society as complementary components in the democratisation process; f) the reaffirmation that the goal of reducing poverty and exclusion and promoting development is essential to address the root causes of instability and conflict; and g) the requirement of a special emphasis upon combating malaria and HIV/AIDS.
The document states that the proposed EU-Africa Summit would be an excellent opportunity to highlight this partnership vision. It also recognises that a strategic partnership with Africa requires consistency and a stronger link between development co-operation and the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.
A Portuguese
official in discussions with the Eurostep Secretariat
welcomed Eurostep’s Statement on a new EU-Africa
Partnership (see PAF 165) as a good contribution to the Council
discussions. According to the official, the Portuguese,
together with the rest of the EU Council, will in the coming
weeks work out how to develop the Council conclusions into
specific proposals for a new strategic partnership with Africa.
It is the Portuguese’s hope that specific proposals will be
ready by the end of their Presidency in July in order for future
EU presidencies to take forward. It is also their hope to have
further dialogue with NGOs on the issue.