Economic Partnership Agreements. Responses to the EU offensive against ACP developmental regions

The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) proposed by the European Commission (EC) are becoming of major concern to civil society organisations in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, as well as NGOs in Europe. EPAs reflect the outwardly aggressive "Global Europe" strategy, as formulated by European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

Enormous pressure is being exerted on ACP governments to conclude EPA agreements before the end of 2007. ACP activists have compiled a wealth of criticisms of the EC initiative, pointing out that the negative effects of the liberalisation of trade and investment within weaker economies have already been extensively documented.

This paper is concerned to bring these analyses to the attention of European civil society and deepening understandings among activists and governments of the implications of EPAs and, in particular, how they undermine existing efforts towards developmental integration in ACP regions.