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The European Union has a long history of relations with Africa and Africa has always been a strategic partner for the European Union. Today, however, the European Union's relations with Africa are at a crossroads and the partnership needs to undergo a profound and rapid change. In order to properly investigate this research problem and to address its research questions concerning the future of the EU-Africa partnership, it is demonstrated that the time has come for change and redefinition of the partnership. Therefore, the overall aim of the article is to provide an insight into the EU's new partnership with Africa, to explore its complex, fragmented nature and scope, actors, legal bases, constitutive elements and different ways both sides are going to present the new agreement to their respective constituencies. The way this research is pursued combines a number of methods. It involves textual analysis of primary sources – the instruments regulating the EU's relations with Africa, secondary sources, documentary analysis as well as comparative, contextual and historical analysis. The complexities facing the EU and its African partners encourage curiosity and reflection about the new partnership. The article strongly emphasizes that the EU-Africa partnership does not stand still. It is a process of ever closer partnership. It has evolved from a relatively limited scale into a comprehensive system of normative instruments and institutions. And it has bifurcated into EU-ACP and EU-AU partnerships and today both partnerships are being re-negotiated. The likelihood of the negotiations being completed successfully, optimistically, by the end of 2020, remains open. It is our overall conclusion and prediction that the EU-Africa partnership will be enhanced and move a step closer to an integrated, comprehensive partnership, an effective framework for EU-AU relations. ; Unia Europejska ma długą historię stosunków i strategicznego partnerstwa z Afryką. Dziś jednak stosunki Unii Europejskiej z Afryką są na rozdrożu, a ich partnerstwo musi ulec głębokiej i szybkiej transformacji. Aby właściwie zbadać ten problem badawczy i odpowiedzieć na pytania badawcze dotyczące przyszłości partnerstwa Unii Europejskiej z Afryką, artykuł dowodzi, że nadszedł czas na jego zmianę i redefinicję. Głównym celem tego artykułu jest identyfikacja nadrzędnych ram nowego partnerstwa UE z Afryką, analiza jego elementów konstytutywnych, złożonego charakteru i zakresu, aktorów, podstaw prawnych, i pozycji negocjacyjnych stron nowego partnerstwa. Badania prowadzono z wykorzystaniem wielu metod badawczych, przede wszystkim analizy tekstowej źródeł podstawowych – dokumentów regulujących stosunki UE z Afryką, literatury, analizy dokumentalnej, a także analizy porównawczej, kontekstualnej i historycznej. Trudności przed jakimi stoją negocjatorzy Unii Europejskiej i ich afrykańscy partnerzy, których oczekiwania są często dramatycznie rozbieżne, rodzą ciekawość i refleksję na temat nowego partnerstwa. Autorzy wychodzą z założenia, że partnerstwo Unii Europejskiej z Afryką jest procesem i nie stoi w miejscu. Jest to proces coraz ściślejszego związku, który stopniowo przekształcił się w kompleksowy system instrumentów i instytucji i podzielił się na dwa równoległe partnerstwa – partnerstwo Unii Europejskiej z państwami Afryki, Karaibów i Pacyfiku i partnerstwo Unii Europejskiej z Unią Afrykańską. Oba te partnerstwa są dzisiaj przedmiotem ponownych negocjacji, a prawdopodobieństwo pomyślnego zakończenia negocjacji do końca 2020 roku pozostaje zdaniem autorów pod znakiem zapytania. Niemniej jednak naszym ogólnym wnioskiem i prognozą jest, że partnerstwo Unii Europejskiej z Afryką zostanie wzmocnione i zbliży się o krok do zintegrowanego, kompleksowego partnerstwa i skutecznych ram dla stosunków Unii Europejskiej z Unią Afrykańską.

The essay describes the negotiation of the various economic partnership agreements of the European Union and the six subgroups who divided the Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) group. This paper is divided in two parts. The first part deals with the Cotonou Agreement, which agreement is the basis of the relationship between the European Union and ACP countries. The second part addresses the Economic Association Agreements, which are covered by the Cotonou Agreement, afterwards it describes the negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and the regions in which the Group has been divided ACP ; El ensayo describe la negociación de los diferentes acuerdos de asociación económica de la Unión Europea con los seis subgrupos en los que se ha dividido al Grupo de Estados de África, el Caribe y el Pacífico (ACP). Para ello, se ha dividido el trabajo en dos partes. En la primera se aborda el Acuerdo de Cotonú, que constituye la base de la relación de la Unión Europea con los países ACP. En la segunda, se abordan los acuerdos de asociación económica inclui- dos en el Acuerdo de Cotonú; y, acto seguido, se describe la negociación de los acuerdos de asociación económica entre la Unión Europea y las diferentes regiones en las que ha quedado dividido el grupo de países ACP

"Die Autoren gehen der Frage nach, ob die zwischen der EU und den AKP-Staaten (Afrika, Karibik, Pazifik) im Rahmen des Cotonou-Abkommens beschlossenen Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) einen erfolgversprechenden Baustein einer globalen Strukturpolitik darstellen. Diese schrittweise in Kraft tretenden Freihandelsabkommen, die mit der wirtschaftlichen Verflechtung der AKP-Staaten untereinander einhergehen sollen, beabsichtigen eine schonende Vorbereitung auf einen schrankenlosen Welthandel und sollen zu einer umfassenden und nachhaltigen Entwicklung beitragen. Die Autoren stellen fest, dass die Prinzipien Freihandel und wirtschaftliche Verflechtung theoretisch eine adäquate Möglichkeit darstellen, den Entwicklungsländern einen auf Nachhaltigkeit basierenden Ausweg aus der Armutsfalle anzubieten und zugleich für Stabilität zu sorgen." (Autorenreferat)

Since the promulgation of Cotonou Agreements between the European Union and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP) the application of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) has been deeply controversial. Analysts and organizations questioned the accords on spirit and letter, considering them potentially damaging to the process of sustainable development of the ACP. This article identifies and analyses the problems that became apparent during the agreements negotiations, taking into account the arguments raised by all parties concerned. Adapted from the source document.

Economic opinion is in the process of re-interpreting low levels of uptake of non-reciprocal pre-ferential trade agreements (PTAs) partly in terms of administrative barriers to preference utiliza-tion. Primary amongst these barriers are Rules of Origin. This paper reviews the literature on Rules of Origin as administrative barriers to the utilization of preferences accorded to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries under the Coutonou Agreement, before going on to ex-amine current revisions of EU PTA Rules of Origin. These are embodied in a new (so-called 'Cotonou+') set of rules for the interim EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) and a second proposed set of rules for the EU's Generalised System of Preference (GSP) arrange-ments, including Everything But Arms. The Cotonou+ rules include some important concessions by the EU, especially for those ACP countries that do not have Least Developed Country (LDC) status, but are supposed to be re-negotiated within a fixed period in line the new EU GSP rules. However, the new GSP rules as revealed in the EU Draft Regulation of 2007 contain no real concessions for non-LDCs, and they introduce potentially trade-restrictive administrative require-ments. These rules are currently (July 2008) under reconsideration by the EU, but it is clear that this exercise does not cover these elements. For this reason, harmonisation of the Cotonou+ and new GSP rules may be a source a serious discord in the negotiation of full EPAs, a process which is supposed to occur during 2008.

AbstractThis article reviews and assesses the recent Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the ACP group of developing countries and the EU. It places the Agreement in the context of the EU's commitment to refocusing its development policy and reforming its aid administration. It emphasises the innovative elements of the Agreement that set it apart from its Lome predecessors—the intention to move to reciprocal regional free trade agreements; the emphasis upon good governance; the rule of law and human rights; the enhanced role for non‐State actors and the private sector and the adoption of a rolling programme of aid provision. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Object of the Paper - legal aspects of the EU - ACP (African, Caribbean, Pacific countries) partnership. After the general questions on EU Development policy, follows the analysis of principal aspects of EU - ACP relations: protection of human rights, democracy, rule of law; financial mechanism of the partnership; trade relations; dispute settlement procedures. The main documents, examined in this Paper are the General Agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT), the Cotonou Agreement (2000) and the Economic partnership agreements (comming into force in 2008). There is also the characterization of Lithuania's relations with ACP countries.

The Object of the Paper - legal aspects of the EU - ACP (African, Caribbean, Pacific countries) partnership. After the general questions on EU Development policy, follows the analysis of principal aspects of EU - ACP relations: protection of human rights, democracy, rule of law; financial mechanism of the partnership; trade relations; dispute settlement procedures. The main documents, examined in this Paper are the General Agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT), the Cotonou Agreement (2000) and the Economic partnership agreements (comming into force in 2008). There is also the characterization of Lithuania's relations with ACP countries.

Preferential trading agreements : friend or foe? / L. Alan Winters -- Third country effects of regional trade agreements / Caroline Freund -- Contingent protection rules in regional trade agreements / Thomas J. Prusa and Robert Teh -- The limits of PTAs : WTO legal restrictions on the use of WTO-plus standards regulation in PTAs / Joel P. Trachtman -- EU and U.S. preferential trade agreements : deepening or widening of WTO commitments? / Henrik Horn, Petros C. Mavroidis and André Sapir -- Labour clauses in EU preferential trade agreements-an analysis of the Cotonou partnership agreement / Jeff Kenner -- Do PTAs actually increase parties' services trade? / Juan A. Marchetti -- A model article XXIV : are there realistic possibilities to improve it? / William J. Davey

This article demonstrates that in the case of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), the EU, as the more powerful actor, shifts between hegemony and dominance in its relations with the CARIFORUM (CF) states in particular, and the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states in general. It also sheds light on the slow process of endogenous Caribbean regional integration, which, despite any best endeavours from the EU, is actually complicated by the EU's emphasis on the EPA as a tool for integration. It shows that despite the conclusion and subsequent definition of the EPA as the case par excellence of the success of the broader EPA policy, it is not a Pareto-optimal agreement. Reference is made to the cases of the EU Common Agricultural Policy, the Protocol on Culture and the recent decision by EU policy-makers to extend the Octroi de Mer until 2020, the same date as the Cotonou agreement binding EU-ACP relations is due to expire.Keywords: European Union; CARIFORUM; Cotonou; Trade; EPAs

The essay reviews the evolution of the EU-Caribbean region bilateral relation under the African, Caribbean & Pacific Group of Nations mechanism, from the Convention of Lome to the recent Cotonou Agreement, with special reference to Cuba. The bilateral relationship has evolved from a paternalistic & preferential position to a more pragmatic & free trade oriented approach. The Caribbean region faces the challenge of accelerating its integration in a single block, in order to reap the benefits of the new accord, & to avoid the disparities of negotiating separately under a renewed context of globalization. Adapted from the source document.