Minister Zaharieva: The EU Will Channel EUR 44 bn. Towards the Development of Africa, and the Caribbean and the Pacific Regions
20 June 2018 News
‘The European Union seeks to modernise, broaden and tighten its cooperation with Africa, and the Caribbean and the Pacific regions. One of the important instruments for achieving this is the European External Investment Plan, which is to channel 44 bn. euro worth of public investment, 4.1 bn. of that coming from the EU,’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva said before the 35th meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and the EU. The meeting was held in the hemicycle of the EP in Brussels.
The Joint Parliamentary Assembly consists of an equal number of MPs from the EP and from the national legislative authorities of the ACP countries respectively, and it is convened twice a year. Minister Zaharieva spoke before MPs as part of the Presidency team. In her speech, Bulgaria’s highest-ranking diplomat also highlighted the role of the European Trust Fund for Emergencies in Africa, which aims at tackling the causes of migration, and assisting 26 countries in North Africa, the Sahel region, and the horn of Africa. Programmes worth 3.4 bn. euro have been agreed upon as part of the fund.
Minister Zaharieva called for even tighter cooperation in the sphere of migration and mobility, laying particular emphasis on the situation in Libya. She also highlighted the key role the ACP has had in concluding the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and asked MPs from the ACP countries to continue with their efforts towards implementing it.
‘As you know, this is a milestone in EU-ACP relations: I expect that we will soon have formal approval of the mandate needed to launch a new series of negotiations following the end of our Cotonou Agreement, which will happen in 2020,’ Minister Zaharieva stated. ‘This will serve as an opportunity to forge a new type of political partnership – one that is to go beyond our traditional relations.’
Autumn should see the start of negotiations on the new agreement, the so called post-Cotonou Agreement, within the mandate to be approved by the end of the Bulgarian Presidency.
At present, the Cotonou Agreement sets out the general framework of the relations between the EU and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP). Its purpose is to reduce and ultimately eliminate poverty, and to contribute to the gradual integration of ACP countries in the global economy. Work within the framework of the Cotonou Agreement is expected to close in February, 2020.
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