December 2006

PREFACE (excerpt)

Since negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and the European Union were launched in 2002 these agreements have been surrounded in controversy. From the inception of negotiations civil society organisations across the ACP and in Europe have expressed reservations about the imbalances in the negotiating process as well as the proposed content of the EPA agreements.

Meanwhile, ACP governments have engaged in the negotiations in good faith. While they have been consistent in their concerns about the risks posed by EPAs, they have been constructive in putting forward specific demands and proposals framed in the spirit and letter of the Cotonou agreement. But as the negotiations have advanced, ACP governments have become increasingly frustrated by the lack of responsiveness from the European Commission to their proposals and in particular to their efforts to preserve the development aspects of EPAs as laid out in Cotonou. The ACP have also become more vocal in expressing their disappointment at the perceived gap between the development rhetoric of the Commission and the restrictive commercial approach of its negotiators.

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