On 15 November 2023, the European Union (EU) and its Member States, on one side, and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) on the other, have signed the much-awaited Post-Cotonou Agreement, also known as Samoa Agreement, by the name of the country where the Agreement was concluded. The Post-Cotonou Agreement is a comprehensive framework agreement that will govern the future relations between the EU and OACPS for the next twenty years. The OACPS is a regional group established in 1975 with the Georgetown Agreement (revised in 2019). It comprises 79 Member States from three different geographical areas (Africa, Carribean and Pacific) which previously formed the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries. For Africa, its members include 48 African countries, and more precisely all Sub-Saharan countries except South Sudan, while South Africa one year ago announced its intentions to leave the group, a decision that so far has not yet materialised. The five North African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) are also not part of this organization. The ACP group became the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, or OACPS in April 2020. The post-Cotonou Agreement will replace the Cotonou Agreement, set to expire already in February 2020, but de facto extended until its replacement with the new Agreement.

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During the Africa Investment Forum, held in Marrakech, Morocco, from 8 to 10 November 2023, the Secretary General of the EAC indicated that Somalia is likely to be admitted to the EAC by the end of this month. More importantly, it seems that also Ethiopia and Djibouti showed interest to join the bloc. If this will happen, this Regional Economic Community (REC) will expand considerably its geographical reach to cover a good part of the Horn of Africa peninsula. This expansion will threaten the survival of another REC representing African countries in the Horn: the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), as Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Somalia are also members (or prospective members, such as in the case of Somalia), of the EAC. In fact, if Djibouti and Ethiopia will join the EAC, the only IGAD members that will be left out of the EAC will be Sudan and Eritrea. This will probably revive the debate on the possible merging of the two Communities. To be noted that participation of African States to RECs is not free, as annual contributions need to be paid for such membership. African countries should therefore make a choice and select cartefully the RECs to which participate.

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