Brussels, 27 February 2003

PRESS RELEASE

Ratification and coming into force of the Cotonou Agreement

During a brief ceremony held at ACP House on 27 February 2003, the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, on behalf of the Community, deposited the instruments of ratification for the Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, on the one hand, and the European Community and its Member-States, on the other hand.

It must be recalled that in order for it to come into force, the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement signed at Cotonou on 23 June 2000, and covering a 20-year period, needed to be ratified by two-thirds of the ACP States (52 of 77), and the 15 Member-States of the European Union and the Community.

Most of the provisions of the Agreement are already being implemented by virtue of a decision of the ACP-EC Council of Ministers.

The Cotonou Agreement offers a global, comprehensive vision of development strategies based on three inter-dependent focal points which are political dialogue, economic and trade cooperation, and development aid. It bases the new partnership relations between the European Union and ACP States on the fundamental concept of the latter’s ownership of their development strategy. It establishes poverty reduction and the integration of the ACP economies into the global economy as fundamental objectives for the partnership.

The first financial protocol of the Cotonou Agreement, covering a 5-year period which began in March 2000, is endowed with 13.5 billion euro of which 1.3 is allocated to the regional envelope, and 2.2 to the Investment Facility.

In the area of trade, negotiations for new Partnership Agreements between the Community and ACP regions and States were launched on 27 September 2002.

Following completion of the ratification procedure by both sides, the Cotonou Agreement will come into force on 1 April 2003.