Right of Reply: The EU-ACP Samoa agreement

The Samoa Agreement is a key political achievement for the EU and Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) states.

The Samoa Agreement was signed on 15 November 2023 and is the largest and most comprehensive partnership worldwide.

By February 2024, 66 OACPS states have signed the agreement, while 12 states (excluding Cuba that did not sign the previous agreement) are expected to sign it in the near future.

The Samoa Agreement provides the new legal and political framework for the EU relations with potentially 79 countries that are members of the OACPS (48 Sub-Sahara African, 16 Caribbean and 15 Pacific countries, and the Republic of Maldives), as well as with each of the sub-regions individually, for the next 20 years.

This is based on a new approach of a partnership between equals.

The Samoa Agreement is based on six key priorities: human rights, democracy and governance; peace and security; human and social development; inclusive, sustainable economic growth and development; environmental sustainability and climate change; and migration and mobility.

Through the renewed partnership, the EU and OACPS states commit to accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, the 2030 Agenda and addressing climate change. Human rights, democracy, good governance and gender equality will be other key priorities of the partnership.

The parliamentary dimension is strengthened with the Samoa Agreement. Along with an OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA), three new joint regional parliamentary assemblies (Africa-EU, Caribbean-EU, and Pacific-EU) have just been created in Luanda, Angola where constitutive assemblies gathered on 19-21 February 2024.

In the framework of these three regional assemblies, three topics of global importance were discussed: the protection of the oceans in the Pacific, climate finance based on the Bridgetown initiative and access to affordable and sustainable energy in Africa.

Some pressing issues were raised by the African side such as the impact on third countries of EU regulation on deforestation and of the critical raw materials Act. It was also proposed that implementation of the African agenda such as the African continental free trade area (AfCFTA) be regularly discussed in the framework of the next Africa-EU Parliamentary Assembly.

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While building on the Cotonou Agreement, the Samoa Agreement includes a stronger ambition in key areas, such as: political cooperation at the multilateral level, regional cooperation, investment and job creation (in line with the new EU Global Gateway Strategy), partnership dialogue and a structured engagement with all stakeholders so that their aspiration can be taken into account.

Put together, the EU and OACPS represent a critical mass of 1.5 billion people whose voice will be heard in international fora, such as the upcoming Small Islands Developing States Conference, the Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries, the Summit of the Future, and COP 29 that will take place in 2024.

Let us be optimistic in the future of the partnership and celebrate a new dawn in EU-OACPS relations.

Yours,

Carlos Zorrinho

Chair of the delegation to the OACPS-EU joint parliamentary assembly