House Chair, hon members, the Cotonou Partnership Agreement is the most comprehensive partnership agreement between developing countries and the European Union, EU. Since 2000 it has been the framework for the EU's relations with 79 countries from Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific, ACP, regions.
Its first revision took place in 2005 and prepared the ground for the 2007 to 2013 financial framework of development assistance. This agreement therefore will be reviewed every five years.
On 19 March the European Commission and the ACP group of 70 states concluded and initialled the text of the second revision of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement.
This revised text adapts the EU-ACP Partnership Agreement to include current global challenges such as climate change, food security, regional integration, state fragility and aid effectiveness. It also focuses on the importance of regional integration for ACP countries to assist them in their economic and sustainable growth.
The agreement, in particular the second revision, takes into consideration the growing importance of regional integration in ACP countries and in EU- ACP relations; the need to foster closer co-operation for peace and security; and, of course the growing interest of promoting growth and tackling cross-border challenges.
It further recognises the continental dimension of Africa, and the AU becomes a partner of this EU-ACP relationship.
It further acknowledges the interdependence between security and development through the promotion of joint co-operation on security threats, the development of a comprehensive approach combining diplomacy, security and development co-operation for situations of state fragility.
It further promotes joint co-operation approaches in dealing with major challenges to meeting the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, which relate to food security, issues of HIV/Aids and sustainability of fisheries and, indeed, their importance in sustainable development, growth and poverty reduction across the globe.
The parties have also committed to raising the profile of climate change in their development co-operation and to supporting ACP-EU efforts in mitigating and adapting to its effects.
It highlights the challenges that ACP countries face in integrating better into the world economy, in particular the effects of preference erosion. It therefore underlines the importance of trade adaptation strategies and aid for trade. More significantly, this second revision clearly recognises the role of national parliaments, local authorities, civil society and the private sector. It will also be instrumental in putting into practice internationally agreed aid effectiveness principles as agreed at the last international aid effectiveness conference.
The ACP-EU Partnership Agreement was signed in June 2010 initially in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Our Minister signed on our behalf in Brussels.
Now having said all this, South Africa should, nonetheless, continue to affirm its viewpoint to the effect that the EU should commit and complement its drive for nonproliferation of small arms and weapons of mass destruction with a responsibility and commitment to complete disarmament.
This standpoint was expressed by the committee during the first amendment debate and also during the review of the Trade, Development and Co- operation Agreement, TDCA, in 2010. Consequently, the committee again approved and urged the department to reserve South Africa's position in this regard, in line with the position we took earlier, but also in line with our commitment as a country to nuclear disarmament.
We commend this report to the House and ask for the approval of Parliament for the treaty. Thank you. There was no debate.
Agreement amending for the second time the Cotonou Partnership Agreement: Agreement amending for the second time the Partnership Agreement between the Members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States of the other part, approved.