European development cooperation constitutes one of the key elements of the external relations of the European Communities, together with trade policy and political relations.
The ACP fonds (Organes parlementaires pour la coopération au développement - Parliamentary bodies for development cooperation) at the HAEU document the establishment, development and activities of the various bodies set up for parliamentary cooperation between member states and a group of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
The HAEU announces four new sub-fonds to this collection, consisting of 4431 paper files, of which 3945 are open for consultation according to the 30 years rule. Exceptionally, some files (resolutions and Parliamentary Questions) have been made available in advance of the 30 years rule. Among these are documents concerning the Lomé Conventions with ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) (1980-2000) that were transferred to the HAEU in 2016.
The documents provide information on the composition, work and activities of the parliamentary development cooperation bodies set up from 1958 to 2000 for the management of the agreements and conventions.
Included among them are documents on the meetings of the Bureau of the Consultative Assembly, meetings of the joint committee, meetings of the Working Groups between the ACP States and the European Community, reports of the Joint Committee and working groups, motions for resolutions, parliamentary questions to the Council or the Commission, and the preparation of study missions and correspondence.
These fonds illustrate engagement in areas such as cultural and industrial cooperation, rural development, human rights, energy, the environment, women and population in the development process, debt, refugees and displaced persons, climate change and small island states, and more.
The European Parliament deposits at the Historical Archives of the European Union consist of 11 principal fonds consisting of nearly 167,000 paper files which have been described and inventoried. The European Parliament Archives Unit has begun to make some files available digitally through its newly launched online dashboard.