The Samoa Agreement is the successor instrument to the Cotonou Partnership Agreement of 2000, which itself replaced the four successive Lomé Conventions stretching back to 1975. Signed in Apia, Samoa on 15 November 2023 between the European Union, its member states, and the members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), it constitutes the overarching legal framework for relations between the EU and 79 partner countries spanning three continents. The agreement entered into provisional application on 1 January 2024 following Council Decision authorising signature and provisional application, pending completion of ratification by all EU member states and OACPS signatories. Its legal architecture rests on Article 217 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which authorises association agreements, combined with development cooperation competences under Articles 208–211 TFEU.
Structurally, the Samoa Agreement is built on an innovative "common foundation plus three regional protocols" model — a departure from Cotonou's single undifferentiated text. The common foundation sets out shared principles and priorities applicable to all parties: human rights, democracy, rule of law, peace and security, human and social development, inclusive sustainable economic growth, environmental sustainability and climate change, and migration and mobility. Layered on top are three tailored regional protocols for Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, each negotiated to reflect distinct geographic priorities. The Africa protocol emphasises industrialisation and continental integration aligned with the African Union's Agenda 2063; the Caribbean protocol foregrounds resilience, ocean governance, and CARICOM integration; the Pacific protocol prioritises climate action, oceans, and Blue Economy cooperation.
Institutionally, the agreement establishes joint bodies at multiple levels. A Summit of Heads of State and Government convenes periodically, while a Council of Ministers takes binding decisions on implementation. Joint Parliamentary Assemblies — both an OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and three regional parliamentary assemblies — provide democratic oversight. The agreement retains the "essential elements" clause familiar from Cotonou Article 9 and now codified in Samoa: violations of human rights, democratic principles, or the rule of law can trigger consultations under a dedicated procedure, ultimately permitting suspension of cooperation. A non-execution clause covering the essential elements mirrors mechanisms found across EU mixed agreements.
Contemporary application has been politically fraught. Hungary blocked Council adoption for over a year, objecting to provisions on sexual and reproductive health and rights and on migration, before the Council finally proceeded in July 2023 using a constructive abstention formula. Several OACPS members, including Nigeria, delayed signature; the African Union has separately questioned the relationship between the Samoa framework and the AU-EU partnership architecture renewed at the February 2022 Brussels Summit. The European External Action Service under High Representative Josep Borrell, and subsequently Kaja Kallas from December 2024, has framed Samoa as a pillar of the EU's Global Gateway investment strategy launched in December 2021. The OACPS Secretariat in Brussels, led by Secretary-General Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti, coordinates implementation on the ACP side.
The Samoa Agreement should be distinguished from the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) — separate trade instruments negotiated under WTO-compatible terms with regional ACP groupings (CARIFORUM, SADC, ECOWAS, EAC, and others). While Samoa provides the political and development cooperation umbrella, EPAs govern reciprocal trade liberalisation and replaced the unilateral Lomé trade preferences after the WTO Bananas dispute rulings. It must also be distinguished from the AU-EU Partnership, which operates at continental level through summits and the Joint Africa-EU Strategy of 2007, and from bilateral association agreements with individual ACP states such as the EU-South Africa Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement.
Edge cases and controversies persist. The agreement's migration provisions, including readmission obligations in Article 74 of the common foundation, have drawn criticism from civil society for prioritising EU return policy over development logic. The exclusion of South Africa from full ACP financial cooperation continues under a separate protocol. The transition from the European Development Fund — historically the financial vehicle for ACP cooperation — to the unified Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI-Global Europe) under Regulation 2021/947 means Samoa is no longer underpinned by a dedicated dedicated fund, raising concerns within the OACPS about predictability. Several Pacific states have questioned whether the Samoa framework adequately reflects the priorities articulated in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent adopted by the Pacific Islands Forum in July 2022.
For the working practitioner, the Samoa Agreement is the indispensable reference for any EU engagement with sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, or the Pacific outside the trade-specific EPA framework. Desk officers handling political dialogue, election observation, sanctions consultations under the essential elements clause, or programming under NDICI-Global Europe geographic envelopes must work from its text. Diplomats posted to OACPS capitals encounter Samoa structures in joint committees and parliamentary exchanges. For researchers, the agreement marks both continuity — preserving Lomé-Cotonou's institutional DNA — and rupture, in its regionalised architecture and its embedding within an EU foreign policy increasingly framed by geoeconomic competition with China and the diplomatic realignments accelerated since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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On 15 November 2023, EU High Representative Josep Borrell and OACPS Secretary-General Georges Chikoti signed the Samoa Agreement in Apia, succeeding the Cotonou Agreement after three years of negotiations and Hungarian objections.