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The importance of Africa for Europe was highlighted in the 1950 Schuman Declaration. Although the overarching framework for relations between the European Union and Africa is embedded in the 2000 Cotonou Agreement, cooperation between the European Union and Africa became increasingly institutionalized through the European Union–Africa Summits of 2000, 2007, 2010 and 2014, during which political leaders from both sides made strong rhetorical commitments to a strategic partnership. Yet, for the wider public, the relationship between the European Union and Africa appears to be both obscure and complex. The fifth European Union–Africa Summit is scheduled to take place in Ivory Coast in November 2017. This article will provide an overview of the development of European Union–Africa relations that coincided with the emergence of the African Union, the successor of the Organisation of African Unity. The so-called ‘strategic partnership’ between the European Union and the African Union represents the most comprehensive partnership the African Union has with any non-African actor. By highlighting current challenges affecting both, such as irregular migration, this article will, however, demonstrate that cooperation between the two is limited and somewhat lacking in strategic direction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article we present a new proposal for the measurement of development, applied to the Pacific Countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP), conditional on their insularity, and with privileged relations with the European Union. Our index has been constructed attending to the criteria defined in the Goals of the Millennium Declaration. For this purpose we will use the P distance method for the year 2007, the last year for which data are available. This index integrates socio-economic variables that permit a territorial ordering of the Pacific ACPs, in terms of those partial indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WTO-sanctioned waiver for the extension of the Lomé system of preferences to the African, Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries expired in December 2007. This deadline coincided with the scheduled conclusion of the EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations, initiated in 2002. The origins of the EU-ACP relationship stretch back to the early days of the European Community, and were formalised in 1975 with the signing of the Georgetown Agreement. However, there has been a notable `cooling' of the relationship since the signing of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement in 2000. For many, the new EPA framework is perceived as a diktat rather than a true partnership agreement. This article reviews the culmination of six years of talks between the two sides and the EU's apparent `rationalisation' of a decades-old partnership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) honours the commitment made by all African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations via Article 36 of the Cotonou Agreement to conclude an agreement that is compatible with the rules and law of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It is a comprehensive agreement that covers not just goods but services, investment, and trade related issues such as innovation and intellectual property. This article posits that now that negotiations have ceased and an agreement has been signed, it is necessary to focus attention on effective implementation of the agreement. Further, this paper suggests that the development of innovation and industrial policies is a salient part of the implementation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]