On August 5th 2005, just about two years ago, I wrote an article under the heading « The bribed and the briber » (See http://www.abcburkina.net/content/view/169/45/lang.fr).

The backstage dealings from that time have now come out in the limelight! The European Commission has always pretended that  European Development Fund (EDF) allocations are not linked to the signing of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA). It has now explicitly threatened to cut down on fund money to the ACP countries (Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific), in case they do not sign an EPA before December 31st this year. This means that if the Pacific nations do not endorse the Economic Partnership Agreement in the form and at the date proposed by the European Commission, the amount of EDF money, earmarked for the Pacific and formally announced by the Commissioner for Development, Louis Michel, will be reduced by 48% (is that all!).

(Source: e-mail from MEP Francesco Affinito, Deputy Head of the Pacific Unit, DG DEV, Brussels, 29/07/07) and an article in Islands Business “PACP trade ministers reject EU’ push to link development aid to EPA ”).

The plain significance of this is that the EU, which heralds wide and large that it will increase its aid to development, threatens to cut it by half, if the ACP countries do not sign a partnership agreement (in actual fact a free trade agreement) by the end of this year.

However, only a couple of months ago, I was among a group of 30 people invited to the Commission offices in Ouagadougou. We were to take part in a discussion with Commission officials, who had come to Ouagadougou to negotiate an EPA with the Economic Community of West African States (CEDEAO). In the course of this meeting I asked for a formal declaration by the EU governments that there is no link between the EPAs and Development Fund money. There was no answer to my explicit question, but it was strongly emphasised in general that there was no connection. Today it has become obvious that the European Commission did not tell us the truth!

This is how the Commission deals with the ACP countries, among which are to be found some of the poorest nations of the world (such as Burkina Faso and Niger). The EU talks of partnerships, but what it delivers comes in the shape of threats and lies.

We call upon all EU citizens, who wish to see true partnerships between Europe and the ACP countries, to ask their respective governments to correct the Commissions mandate, so that it respects these nations. They know that the liberalisation of trade can not, alone, ensure their development.

Koudougou, August 5, 2007

Maurice Oudet

Director, SEDELAN