EU - ACP: finding solutions to shared challenges - Montesquieu Institute

Europe and the 79 developing countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific making up the ACP have more in common than just the dark cloud of the colonial past. Security, especially in Africa, development and climate change are all challenges that unite, as MEPs and national MPs from these countries repeatedly acknowledged during the 23rd Plenary session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Denmark on 28-30 May.

Co-presidents of the Assembly, Belgian Liberal Louis Michel and Kenyan MP Musikari Kombo, spoke to us on two subjects, one for the tough present and one for a hopefully brighter future: the worrying situation in Mali as well as cooperation in the 21^st century.

Mali

The situation in Mali is extremely serious, Michel said. “The country is cut in half and if it were to be divided or even disappear, that would cause a domino effect throughout the region, touching even Algeria and Libya itself."

Both Michel and Kombo expressed grave doubts as to the possibility of a political solution to the crisis, calling on Europe and other big regional powers to provide military assistance to help extinguish the flames. Kombo said: “Mali will need military intervention, the people trying to secede must be removed by force," adding that this can only happen with EU military aid to the regional organisation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which wants to intervene but does not have the means.

From aid to trade

Decades after the relationship between Europe and its former colonies was set with the Lomé and Cotonou agreements, it was time for a new start, Michel said. “We have to totally change the nature of our relationship. Thinking we can develop a country with some financial help, by sending food or financing some small project here or there is so stupid, it is almost cynical." He added what was needed was strong governance underpinning “a true social market economy”.

Kombo agreed: “I never believed aid is the solution to ACP problems. Aid should only come in cases of absolute necessity but it cannot eradicate poverty." He explained that when Kenya became independent in 1963, its economy was must stronger than South Korea's. “But then they went for growth… So we must ask what we can do for growth and trade. Business together is the right approach."

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