The ACP states (48 African, 16 Caribbean and 15 Pacific countries) are associated with the member states of the European Union under the Lomé Convention of 1975. The Lomé Convention was replaced by the Cotonou Agreement in 2000. Of the present total of 79 states, about half are members of the Commonwealth and 39 are among the 48 least developed countries as recognised by the United Nations. The ACP group of states has a total population of about 650 million. ACP states may benefit from lending from the European Investment Bank and from the European Development Fund. The major difference between the Lomé Convention and the Cotonou Agreement is that the Cotonou Agreement’s partnership is extended to new actors, including local governments and civil society.

The ACP Secretariat is the administrative body behind the ACP group of states. Its headquarters are located in Brussels. The Secretariat is headed by the Executive Secretary General, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, who is in charge of the implementation the Group's international policy. Furthermore, he directs and coordinates its cooperation policy. The Secretariat is responsible for: • carrying out the tasks assigned it by the Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government, Council of Ministers, Committee of Ambassadors and the ACP Parliamentary Assembly; • contributing to the implementation of the decisions of these organs; • monitoring the implementation of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement; • assisting the ACP organs and joint institutions created in the framework of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreements. The Secretariat is under the direction of the ACP Group's policy-making organs such as the summit of ACP Heads of State and Government, Council of Ministers and the Committee of Ambassadors. More information: www.acpsec.org/index.htm

The European Union (EU) was established in 1992 with the signature of the Treaty on European Union in the City of Maastricht. The Treaty of the European Union was last modified by the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. The European Union emerged out of previous initiatives such as the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Area that had been created by the original six member states in the 1950s in the post WWII and pre Cold War era. Since then, the European Community enlarged several times so that by 2010 the EU counts 27 member states. The EU is ruled by several supranational and intergovernmental institutions whose powers have considerably increased over the years. Next to the original competencies on economic and political integration between the member states, the Treaty of the European Union provides for a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), a European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Economic integration between the member states culminated in the so-called single market (the Schengen area) that provides for the free movement of people, goods, services and capital. Furthermore, many of the member states share a common currency – the EURO – under the European Monetary Union.

The Cotonou Agreement is the principal instrument of the European Union’s development policy and was signed on 20 June 2000 by representatives of the European Union’s member states and 77 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. It succeeded and replaced the Lomé Convention that had been in place since 1975. Based on partnership the agreement aims at promoting economic, cultural and social development of the ACP states. It provides for regular and wide-ranging political discourse and emphasizes that the Agreement shall promote human rights, democratisation, the rule of law and good governance. Since the revision of article 4 of the Cotonou Agreement in 2004, local decentralised authorities have officially been recognised as having a “complementary role of and potential for contributions (…) to the development process”. The Cotonou Agreement provides for following institutions: an ACP-EU Council of Ministers, meeting at least once per year; a Comité of Ambassadors in Brussels; and an ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly meeting twice per year..