ABSTRACT
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the recession of the early 1990s meant that the countries of the European Union (EU) were preoccupied for some time with three major issues: how to deal with Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union; what the implications of the Maastricht Treaty are and how to avoid more unemployment. In the meantime the EU market has been fundamentally transformed through the completion of the Single European Market (SEM) project, and the creation of the European Economic Area (EEA). At the same time the EU was negotiating with four EFTA countries for membership.1 These preoccupations pushed developing countries to the periphery of the EU’s immediate interest. The Lomé IV treaty had been signed in 1989 and would give some respite for at least five years (for the financial part). It would take ten years before the following convention was on the agenda again.
