African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States

ACP States
  Caribbean group
  East and South Africa group
  Pacific group
  West African group
  Southern African group
  Central African group
  East Africa group

The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is a group of countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific that was created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. The group's main objectives are sustainable development and poverty reduction within its member states, as well as their greater integration into the world's economy. All of the member states, except Cuba, are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement with the European Union.

The Cotonou Agreement (signed in Cotonou, Benin in June 2000) is the successor to the Lomé Conventions. One of the major differences from the Lomé Convention is that the partnership is extended to new actors such as civil society, private sector, trade unions and local authorities. These will be involved in consultations and planning of national development strategies, provided with access to financial resources and involved in the implementation of programmes.

Many small island developing states are ACP states; the fourth Lomé Convention was revised in 1995 in Mauritius and gives special attention to island countries in this agreement.

States

Africa

The African ACP countries negotiate in five Economic Partnership Agreements groups[1] (West Africa, CEMAC, Southern Africa Development Community, East African Community, Eastern and Southern Africa) with the EU.

"West Africa group" (ECOWAS plus Mauritania)


"CEMAC plus São Tomé and Príncipe, DR Congo group" (ECCAS related)

 EAC group


"Eastern and Southern Africa group" (COMESA related)


SADC group

Caribbean

All countries of the Caribbean Community plus Dominican Republic group negotiate in the CARIFORUM Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU).

Pacific

All countries of the Pacific Islands Forum group negotiate in the Pacific EPA with the EU.

North Atlantic

In this region are located the EU OCTs of Greenland and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, but there are no ACP states.[2]

South Atlantic

In this region are located the EU OCTs of Saint Helena and Falkland Islands, but there are no ACP states.[2] Nevertheless, Saint Helena is developing links with the SADC EPA group.[3]

Uninhabited territories

The uninhabited EU OCTs do not participate in regional integration and do not receive development funding from the EU.

Special designations

The Cotonou agreement recognises the specific challenges faced by least developed countries, landlocked countries and islands in their economic development. Therefore, those countries are granted a more favourable treatment than other ACP member countries. The text of the Cotonou agreement has been updated in 2005 and 2010, but the lists have not, despite the fact that the actual list of LDCs as defined by the United Nations has changed: Cape Verde has graduated from LDC status in December 2007, while Senegal has acquired the status in 2001 and Timor-Leste in 2003. The following lists should thus not be considered as the actual lists of ACP LDCs and islands (a few islands are also not listed).

Annex VI of the Cotonou agreement lists the following designations:

Least-developed ACP states

The Least developed OCTs are the following: Anguilla, Mayotte, Montserrat, Saint Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands, Wallis and Futuna, Saint Pierre and Miquelon.[6]

Landlocked ACP states

Island ACP states

See also

References

  1. ↑ EPA Groups
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 OCT regional groups
  3. ↑ Saint Helena
  4. ↑ Because of forced population relocation the BIOT it is commonly associated with Mauritius that is currently in the Eastern and Southern Africa EPA group.
  5. ↑ TAAF The islands of the TAAF are located in the southern Indian Ocean and thus if applicable would be associated with the SADC EPA group. The antarctic territory is also located near the south-eastern edge of the Indian Ocean
  6. ↑ Overseas Association Decision, Annex I B

External links

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