ABSTRACT
The relationship between the Caribbean and Europe is undergoing real change. It is not only the independent countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean that are being affected, but also the Overseas Territories associated with the UK. However, the trajectories of the respective relationships are diverging. For some time now global pressures, new priorities and approaches in European Union (EU) development policy, and unfulfilled expectations in the Commonwealth Caribbean have all contributed to the weakening of that relationship to a point where it is now under serious threat. The article analyses the key events that have led to this situation. In particular, it considers: the ending of trade protocols; the erosion of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) preference as a result of a series of free trade agreements negotiated by the EU; the refocusing of EU development policy towards the least developed countries; and the effective split in the ACP group through the establishment of a controversial regional Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). By way of comparison the article also looks at relations between the EU and the UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs), which have actually been strengthened by
the recently agreed Association of the Overseas Countries and Territories. But first the article considers the relationship between the Commonwealth Caribbean and the EU.
