Brokering the post-Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States
The Cotonou Agreement is the treaty governing relations between the European Union (EU) and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) since June 2000. It encompasses numerous policy areas—including development, trade, migration and mobility, peace and security, democracy and human rights, environment and climate change—affecting the lives of more than a billion people. Renewal was being impeded by conflicting preferences, with some EU Member States and the African Union in favour of dismantling the partnership. Professor Carbone was invited to serve as a Policy Advisor to the EU Taskforce on the Post-Cotonou Agreement. His research contributed to a proposed legal framework which introduced the idea of three separate regional pillars, allowing for the targeting of specific policy actions to different countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific regions. This innovative approach was incorporated into the proposal for the EU’s negotiating directives adopted by the European Commission in December 2017 and then by the EU Council in June 2018. Carbone’s research and advice then supported the EU negotiating directives and informed discussions within the OACPS on the structure of the new Agreement. On 3 December 2020, the chief negotiators from the EU and OACPS reached a political deal on the text for a new EU-OACPS Agreement that will succeed the Cotonou Agreement, which they initialled on 15 April 2021.
