This paper seeks to show how the nature of EU development policy has evolved over the past five decades, by looking at the relations between the EU and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) group of countries. In particular, between the 1950s and the 1990s, EU development policy was mainly conceived as an interaction between a donor and a group of recipients. This approach, exemplified by the Lomé Convention with its generous trade and aid packages and emphasis on partnership between the parties, gave the EU a distinctive place in the international arena. The erosion of the special relationship with the ACP group had already started in the mid-1980s, so that by the end of the 1990s its normalisation was not a surprise. Predictably, the Cotonou Agreement combined traditional development measures with new political objectives, such good governance, immigration and global security. The EU’s special relationship with the ACP group was seriously challenged by the changes in the trade regime (the Everything but Arms initiative and the Economic Partnership Agreements) and by the adoption of a Joint Africa-EU Strategy (as well other regional strategies for the Caribbean and the Pacific). This paper, ultimately, questions the relevance of the ACP group in a post-Lisbon EU development policy, and concludes that, although the old partnership has been eroded, there have been no signs that the EU has shifted away from the fight against world poverty.
