This chapter considers the influence of the European Union (EU) on international development with respect to social and economic rights. All but a few countries outside the EU are former colonies of member states and with the legacy of colonialism being so invasive there continue to be systemic and paternalistic ties. While ongoing links between the EU states and the various countries of Asia and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Association (ACP) have been crucial for development purposes, recent changes to the structure and form of international cooperation have altered the way in which the EU considers former colonies (Holland and Doidge, 2012: 70– 94; Beringer et al, 2019; Carbone and Orbie, 2018). This chapter will survey the implications of key socio-economic policies with respect to the EU's influence on former colonies, arguing that developmental and rights-based approaches have been frustrated by ideologically driven positions characterised most often by self-interest on the part of EU member states. While acknowledging various efforts and commitments that have been made by member states (indeed, half of the world's development aid comes from the EU) this chapter has the intention of opening up the debate to look through the faultlines that exist between former colonies and former colonial powers. Its aim is to examine the manner in which certain EU policies have contributed to under-development and a diminution of rights in many of the most vulnerable regions around the world. In assessing the potential contribution of the EU to Least Developed Countries (LDCs), this chapter recognises a need to reconsider the legacy of colonialism and examine policy-based reasons for continued underdevelopment and the negation of human rights in former colonies (Gamble, 2013: 15– 26).

The policy framework

All member states of the EU are party to the Charter of the United Nations, which, in Articles 55 and 56, places an obligation on these states to: ‘promote … universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion’.