Has the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of nations (the ACP) a future beyond 2020, the date that the Cotonou Convention expires?
Judging from the responses to this and related questions at a recent European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) conference in Maastricht, finding a consensus may be far from easy. At the start of the month ECDPM brought together seventy ACP and EU participants from a wide range of government, public and private entities to initiate a debate that has significant implications for future global relationships.
The meeting, held to celebrate the development think tank’s twenty-fifth anniversary, illustrated a clear difference of opinion between many of those who came from EU member states and those who from, or were associated with
