The ACP trade union organisations and the challenge of EPAs:Risks, opportunities and needs for boosting capacities

Cooperation between the EU and the ACP countries has changed considerably since the Yaoundé Agreements were signed in 1963 and it has given rise to a range of institutional innovations. These innovations result from the dynamics within the EU-ACP agreements but also from the development of a larger institutional framework incorporating the main international institutions (above all, the IMF, the World Bank, the GATT/WTO and the ILO) and developments in the international political and economic context. The major changes over the last 40 years at international, national and regional level have therefore led to modifications in both the need for development in the ACP countries and the offer of development from the EU.