Signing of the 2nd ACP/EEC Convention in Lomé

On October 31, 1979, representatives of the European Economic Community (EEC) and its 9 member states, on the one hand, and the group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states and its 58 member countries, on the other, met in Lomé, the capital of Togo, to sign the second ACP/EEC Convention. Following the first Convention signed on February 28, 1975, the Lomé II Convention provided for economic cooperation between the two institutions and their member states in a series of sectors (trade, industry, agriculture and mining). As a new feature of this economic cooperation, this renewed Convention provided for the implementation of the System for the Stabilization of Export Earnings from Mining Products (SYSMIN), which aimed to help develop the mining industry of ACP member countries whose economies relied on this industry. October 31, 2014 thus marks the 35th anniversary of the signing of the Convention.