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

NGO Discussion Document, March 1997

Chapter 2 - What must the new EU-ACP partnership deliver?

The future system of EU-ACP partnership has to rest on a vision of what development should deliver for people in partner countries. It is not enough to discuss more efficient instruments serving unchallenged assumptions based on standard macro-economic models. Based on this overall vision, NGOs will want to make contributions on a whole range of specific questions to be tackled in looking at the future of EU-ACP cooperation: aid instruments, trade regimes, mechanisms for political dialogue.

Public support for EU development co-operation rests on the belief that it reduces poverty, increases human security and is sustainable. (Which is of course in line with the objectives in Article 130u of the Treaty). The EU's future relationship with its partners should start from this basis. It should aim to help ensure women and men enjoy effective access to a full range of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. Good governance, in its proper sense of democracy, transparency and participation (rather than conformity with specific social and economic models) is central to ensuring these rights. The whole of society including the poor, women and other vulnerable groups must be given access to economic opportunity and social development. Underlying the whole relationship should be a concept of partnership involving genuine dialogue, popular participation and an equitable division of responsibilities between the state, civil society and the private sector.

Access to rights

There is now a whole body of political, social, cultural and economic rights which are enshrined in international human rights and humanitarian law and to which the Member States of the EU therefore subscribe. The EU and its Member States have also committed themselves to important international agreements at the UN summits at Rio, Cairo, Copenhagen and Beijing. In its relations with the ACP countries and other developing countries the EU should aim to help the people of these countries benefit from these rights and commitments.

As an example: the EU's policy and practice on integrating gender issues in development cooperation should start from a commitment to promoting and protecting the rights of women in Southern countries in accordance with international human rights instruments, like the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the 1993 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. It should also put into practice the relevant commitments agreed by the EU in Rio, Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen and Beijing.

One right which should not be forgotten is the right to "self-reliant development .... rooted in each people's culture" (Article 139 of Lomé IV). This is particularly threatened by the adoption of a standardised paradigm of development.

Access to economic opportunities

Aid programmes should have the central aim of providing women and men with access to economic opportunity and control over resources, in particular via basic social services, income-generating and income-supporting activities for the poor (especially women) and strengthening social organisations (see Chapter 5).

Lessons from Northern and Southern NGOs' experience in running development projects are relevant here. NGOs' typical approach of focussing on the needs of a target group, often the poor, implies actively involving them in project planning, monitoring and evaluation. Experience has been built up of the advantages, possibilities and demands of bringing the poor, women and marginalised groups into the development process. This is an area in which NGOs have found the EU's development approach conspicuously weak.

On the trade side, there are a number of factors which developing countries have to acquire if they want to benefit from world trade and integrate into a competitive, globalised world market. These include technology, communications and information, capital and credit, foreign direct investment (FDI), training and education, management, know-how (intellectual property rights), cheap and skilled labour, large consumer markets, adequate support and government infrastructure. To the extent that the EU wishes to have the ACP countries, and especially the least developed amongst them, "integrate in the world market", it must be willing to support these necessary conditions. If such support cannot be provided, expectations of the ACP countries' integration into the world market should be moderated.

Partnership and good governance

Central to the notion of partnership is a balance of responsibilities between the partners. There must be clarity of responsibilities between the EU and the ACP for carrying out the agreed objectives of cooperation. In order to make partnership effective, there is a need for working fora for policy dialogue between the two sides. This applies both at the overall level (revamping the Joint Assembly and ACP-EU ministerial dialogue into effective mechanisms) and at national level. Policy dialogue mechanisms must be transparent and open to civil society - including dialogue between Southern and Northern civil society.

If it wishes to promote democracy and human rights, the EU has particular responsibilities. At a world level, economic governance is much more highly developed (through the Bretton Woods institutions and in particular the WTO) than political governance, but is not transparent or equitable. This situation is destablising and dangerous, particularly for weaker developing countries. The EU plays a major part in decision-making at this level. If it is going to promote human rights and democracy conditionality it has a responsibility to promote democratic, equitable decision-making at international level. The European Union should also commit itself to greater participative democracy in the EU itself and especially in the decision-making on Lomé and policies related to "integration in the world market" (trade, agriculture, economic, science etc.).

ACP governments have a particular responsibility to encourage a climate where civil society (and the private sector) can participate fully in the development process. One example of this is moving further ahead with the concept and practice of decentralised cooperation. However opportunities for participation have to be opened in a wide variety of political and social areas.

While enabling civil society to make its contribution, the cooperation relationship must also support the existence of a democratic, sovereign State able to take on its responsibilities. That means in particular that the State must be able to provide basic services to the population, provide basic security and ensure the rule of law. Where the State cannot fulfill these tasks, priority must go to building up its capacities.

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Updated on April 3, 1997
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