The Joint Assembly of MEPs and their counterparts from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries held in Togo focuses this occasion on the consequences of the Arab Spring in Sub-Saharan Africa, the impact of indebtedness on development aid and the food crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Louis Michel, Co-President of the EU-ACP Parliamentary Assembly stressed at the opening ceremony of the Joint Assembly that security or economic difficulties should not be used as a pretext for reducing democracy after the Arab Spring. He also stressed that the crisis should not be an excuse to cut development aid. The Joint Assembly of MEPs and their counterparts from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries focuses on the consequences of the Arab Spring in Sub-Saharan Africa, the impact of indebtedness on development aid and the food crisis in the Horn of Africa. The Joint Assembly is held this time in Lomé, Togo. The 26th meeting of ACP-EU economic and social interest groups took place from 5 to 7 July and it was agreed that the priority is the implementation of the Cotonou Agreement.

The ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) brings together elected representatives of the European Union and the ACP countries, with MEPs and MPs from 78 states that are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement, which is the basis for ACP-EU development cooperation. On this occasion, Louis Michel was also particularly concerned that European leaders would come under pressure from the markets to think short-term only. In addition, the President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, who was also present at the opening ceremony, listed food security, drought, infrastructure, access to drinking water, democratic governance and the prevention of the proliferation of weapons following the events in Libya amongst the most important issues to be addressed.

The Joint Assembly Co-President also highlighted that democracy had progressed in a spectacular way in West Africa in recent years but democratic transitions are extremely fragile and rarely linear and it is essential that elections should always meet the criteria of transparency. Mr Michel pointed to Somalia's political and security problems, which must be addressed seriously in order to prevent the problems from spilling over to other countries, such as Kenya.