This report has been prepared to assist the ACP to develop a detailed strategy both for the current negotiations with the EU on a successor to the Lomé Convention, which will result in a broad ‘Framework Agreement’, and for the subsequent discussion on putting this into effect. Whilst the EU's proposed changes are unsatisfactory, it is also the case that the status quo is not an option since forces operating outside the Convention will undermine Lomé preferences if the relationship is not put on a footing more relevant to the twenty-first century.