Cotonou Agreement Africa European Union EU strategic partnership

Course summary Cotonou Agreement Africa European Union:

The EU-Africa summit, held in December 2007 in Lisbon, cemented new Africa-EU Strategic partnership, marking a qualitative leap in relations between the two continents. The Joint Africa-EU strategy provides an overarching long-term framework for Africa- EU relations, while its first action plan specifies concrete proposals for 2008-2010, structured along 8 Africa-EU strategic partnerships.

Together with the political Lisbon declaration, those key documents define the framework for the Africa-EU strategic partnership, designed to guide EU-Africa dialogue and cooperation in the coming few years, in line with the principles of African ownership, co-management and co-responsibility.

One of the main objectives of the EU relations with Africa is to promote the achievement of the UN Millennium development goals (MDGs) in Africa. This objective is strengthened and complemented by the specific objectives pursued within the Cotonou Agreement, the trade development and cooperation agreement (TDCA), the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, and the European neighborhood policy, including the support to political reform and economic modernisation.

Europe and Africa are connected by strong trade links, making the EU the biggest export market for African products. For example, approximately 85% of Africa’s exports of cotton, fruit and vegetables are imported by the European Union (EU). 

Example of the course Cotonou Agreement:

Since the early 2000s, Africa has seen the birth of the African Union (AU) with its socio-economic programme, and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD); Africa’s regional economic communities (RECs) have become more active and a new generation of leaders has emerged at national level. Relations between the EU and Africa must develop to keep pace with all these changes.

ACP-EC Partnership agreement ("The Cotonou Agreement")
The Partnership agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of states of the one part and the European Community and its member states of the other part was signed on 23 June 2000 in Cotonou, Benin – hence the name ACP-EC partnership agreement or "Cotonou Agreement". It was concluded for a twenty-year period from March 2000 to February 2020, and entered into force in April 2003. It was for the first time revised in June 2005, with the revision entering into force on 1 July 2008.

The Cotonou Agreement is a global agreement, introducing important changes and ambitious objectives while preserving the 'acquis' of 25 years of ACP-EC cooperation.

The ACP group consists of 79 member states, all of them, save Cuba, signatories to the Cotonou Agreement which binds them to the European Union: 48 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 from the Caribbean and 15 from the Pacific.

List of ACP countries (Africa)
Angola - Cape Verde - Comoros - Benin - Botswana - Burkina Faso - Burundi - Cameroon - Central African Republic - Chad - Congo (Brazzaville) - Congo (Kinshasa) - Ivory Coast - Djibouti - Eritrea - Ethiopia - Gabon - Gambia - Ghana - Republic of Guinea - Guinea-Bissau - Equatorial Guinea - Kenya - Lesotho - Liberia - Madagascar - Malawi - Mali - Mauritania - Mauritius - Mozambique - Namibia - Niger - Nigeria - Rwanda - Sao Tome and Principe - Senegal - Seychelles - Sierra Leone - Somalia - South Africa - Sudan - Swaziland - Tanzania - Togo - Uganda - Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In 2007 trade with the ACP countries totalled €80 billion, with the EU importing goods to the value of €40.2 billion and exporting goods worth €39.7 billion. For most of the ACP countries - and for virtually all African ACP countries - the EU is the main trading partner. So, trade between the ACP and the EU has remained important for the ACP, but marginal for the EU.

The Euro-Mediterranean partnership, formerly known as the Barcelona Process, was re-launched in 2008 as the Union for the Mediterranean at the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean in July, with the new network of relations endorsed at the Marseille Meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Ministers of Foreign Affairs in November. The partnership now includes all 27 member states of the European Union, along with 16 partners across the Southern Mediterranean and the Middle East.

The European neighbourhood policy applies to the EU's immediate neighbours by land or sea – Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine. Although Russia is also a neighbour of the EU, the relations are instead developed through a strategic partnership covering four "common spaces".


The EU-Algeria association agreement. The European Union is Algeria's largest trading partner, absorbing just under two-thirds of Algerian exports. Following the conclusion of negotiations in December 2001, Algeria and the EU signed an association agreement in the framework of the Euromed partnership in April 2002.

Trade, development and cooperation agreement (TDCA) with South Africa. South Africa is the EU's largest trading partner in Africa. Although it is a member of the ACP Group of countries it is by far the strongest of sub-Saharan Africa's economies, and has an free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU.

The EU infrastructure trust fund for Africa is an innovative co-financing instrument of the EU-Africa partnership on infrastructure. It brings together the EC, member states, the European Invest Bank (EIB), and European Development Financing institutions, who can pool their respective efforts and resources to directly co- finance relevant projects.

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