African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States

The former ACP Group (which became the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) in April 2020) comprises 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific states with which the European Union (EU) has a special relationship. All the OACPS countries, with the exception of Cuba, signed the Cotonou Agreement (the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement) in 2000. For over 20 years, this agreement has been central to the EU’s policy of development cooperation laid down in Article 208 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Originally due to expire in February 2020, the agreement has been extended until November 2021, and is based on three pillars:

• development cooperation,
• economic and trade cooperation,
• the political dimension.

In April 2021, the EU and the OACPS initialled a new agreement that will succeed the Cotonou Agreement. This agreement aims to strengthen the capacity of the EU and the ACP countries to address global challenges together.

It lays down common principles and covers the following priority areas:

• democracy and human rights,
• sustainable economic growth and development,
• climate change,
• human and social development,
• peace and security,
• migration and mobility.

Current ACP-EU trade arrangements are based upon economic partnership agreements. These link the EU to ACP countries in seven regional groupings.

• CARIFORUM (Caribbean) region. Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
• West Africa. Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Togo.
• Central Africa. Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe.
• Eastern and Southern Africa. Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• East African community. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
• Southern African development community. Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa.
• Pacific region. Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

SEE ALSO

• Development cooperation
• Human rights
• Sustainable development
• Neighbourhood development and international cooperation instrument
• ACP countries — economic partnership agreements and export arrangements (summary)
• Agreement between the European Community and the Pacific States (summary)
• Cotonou Agreement (summary)
• Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the CARIFORUM states (summary)
• Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the Southern African Development Community countries (summary)
• EU trade policy towards developing countries, including ‘Aid for Trade’ (summary)
• EU-Côte d'Ivoire Economic Partnership Agreement (summary)
• Global Europe - the EU Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (summary)
• Ghana-EU economic partnership agreement (summary)
• Interim Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the Central Africa Party (summary)
• Political dialogue and cooperation agreement with Cuba (summary)
• Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) with South Africa (summary).