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DRAFT OPINION (2023/2065(INI))

On the implementation of the EU-Southern African Development Community (SADC) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

DEVE-PA-751832

Committee on Development · Rapporteur: Karsten Lucke

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 7 Oct 2026

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The Committee on Development's draft opinion asks the Committee on International Trade to include its suggestions in a resolution on the EU-Southern African Development Community (SADC) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). It welcomes the first ex post evaluation and sets out what the EPA should achieve. It says the EPA should support regional integration, diversify value chains and create local jobs, help reduce and eradicate hunger and poverty, and build capacity for sustainable development, including fiscal systems and the fight against tax evasion. It adds that the EPA should create a predictable and transparent regional regulatory framework for trade and investment, support the African Continental Free Trade Area and attract private capital for the 2030 Agenda, and that local and regional civil society must be involved in implementation and evaluations.

Committee position. The Committee on Development proposes that the Committee on International Trade include its suggestions in the resolution: welcoming the first ex post evaluation and stressing that the EPA should support regional integration, diversified value chains, sustainable development, good governance and civil society involvement.

Key points

  1. The Committee on Development calls on the Committee on International Trade to incorporate its suggestions into its motion for a resolution.
  2. It welcomes the first ex post evaluation of the EU-SADC EPA and stresses that the EPA aims for trade and investment to contribute to sustainable development in its economic, social and environmental dimensions.
  3. It points out that regional integration features prominently in the EPA and is essential to integrate developing countries into the world economy.
  4. It stresses that EU development finance cooperation with SADC countries must assist their regional economic cooperation and integration efforts.
  5. It points out that the EPA should help diversify value chains and economies in SADC countries, create added value and jobs locally, and help reduce and eventually eradicate hunger and poverty sustainably.
  6. It underlines the importance of good governance and capacity building for sustainable development, in particular sustainable fiscal systems and fighting tax evasion, to unlock fiscal capacity and protect the environment.
  7. It stresses that the EPA should help establish an effective, predictable and transparent regional regulatory framework for trade and investment and provide a sustainable foundation for the African Continental Free Trade Area.
  8. It stresses that this framework should attract private capital, which it calls indispensable for sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda goals.
  9. It highlights the importance of broadly, systematically and meaningfully involving local and regional civil society in the EPA's implementation and its ex post evaluations.

Who is affected

  • The Committee on International Trade, which is asked to incorporate the suggestions into its resolution.
  • SADC countries, whose regional integration, value chains, fiscal systems and regulatory framework the EPA should support.
  • Local and regional civil society, which should be involved in the EPA's implementation and evaluations.

Figures and deadlines

  • 2030 Agenda, whose goals the EPA should help achieve by attracting private capital.