France to support an ambitious EU-ACP agreement

11 Juin 2020

Paris, France, June 11 (Infosplusgabon) - The French minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, has said that France supports the efforts of the European Commission for the conclusion, as soon as possible, of an ambitious agreement between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

"France supports the efforts of the European Commission to conclude, as soon as possible, an ambitious agreement between the European Union and the ACP countries. With the next agreement, we wish to deepen our cooperation on education, youth employment, mobility, the fight against climate change and new technologies," Lemoyne said on Tuesday during an informal meeting by videoconference of EU development ministers.

The French minister added that the agreement should, in particular, take into account the commitments made in the framework of the Paris Agreement of 2015 and also hoped that this agreement would strengthen the partnership between the European Union and the ACP countries and that it establishes a common foundation of democratic values, the rule of law and governance.

The Cotonou Agreement, signed in 2000 in Benin and covering relations between the EU and 79 ACP countries, including 48 from sub-Saharan Africa, expired in February 2020, but the two parties agreed to extend the agreement until December 2020.

Negotiations on the future partnership agreement, which began in September 2018 in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, are still in progress.

The Cotonou Agreement, which replaced the Lomé Convention of 1975, aims to reduce and, ultimately, eradicate poverty and contribute to the gradual integration of the ACP countries into the world economy.

It is based on three pillars: development cooperation, economic and commercial cooperation, the political dimension.

The future agreement should cover priority areas such as democracy and human rights, economic growth and investment, climate change, poverty eradication, peace and security, migration and mobility.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/BOL/GABON2020

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