An Overview of EU Development Policy

Abstract

The foundations for a fully fledged European development policy were laid at the creation of the European Economic Community in 1957. At that time Member States agreed to make a joint financial contribution to the economic and social development of their still-dependent territories, and allow them preferential access to the European market. This system was continued after their independence, in the form of a partnership agreement, and widened to include former territories of new Member States, and also other developing countries. This partnership, which came to be known by the African capital where the first Convention was signed, Lomé, has been adapted over the years to answer to new challenges. We are presently in the Fourth Lomé Convention, which was agreed in 1989 for a duration of ten years. Lomé’s membership has steadily increased to encompass at present some 70 developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (the ACP). In the near future we may even welcome the seventy-first member, South Africa, whose accession we are now negotiating, albeit on restricted terms.