ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the persistence of the impasse that characterized the second negotiation period from 2008 to 2012. In contrast to the problem of misperceptions borne of implicit disagreement (Chapter 3), it highlights how a situation of open contestation of these rules prolonged impasse situations. The chapter indicates that both sides’ conflicting positions were grounded in strong and incommensurable normative convictions about what the rules of the game ought to look like. To understand the stubbornness with which both sides defended their negotiation positions, the chapter takes account of the actors’ different readings of the post-colonial history in EU-Africa relations and how it shapes normative convictions about the parties’ rights and obligations in the 21st century. In its conclusion, it also briefly touches upon the latest negotiating period of EPAs (2012–2014) in which an agreement was initialed, but subsequently rejected by a small number of West African countries.
