2 - 3 February: ACP - EU ministerial meeting

The Union and its African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partners signed a trade and aid agreement which will radically alter relations between the two blocs at the end of two days of talks. The deal concludes almost one and a half years of negotiations aimed at overhauling the four Lomé conventions which have governed relations with Europe's former colonies for more than a quarter of a century. The European Commission hailed the agreement as "historic" and described it as a "fresh, radical departure for the EU and the ACP at the start of the new millennium".