The Republic of Nauru is a Micronesian Pacific island country. The relationship between the European Union and Nauru is governed by the EU-ACP Cotonou Partnership Agreement, which will soon be replaced by a successor Agreement. Nauru and the EU work together on a number of common values, interests and challenges, such as climate change, oceans and human rights, which they address in bilateral Political Dialogues, at various ACP-EU policy dialogues, and at global multilateral levels.

Political Relations between the EU and Nauru

Nauru is the world's smallest republic with a land area of 21 km², and an approximate population of 13,000.

Nauru participates in policy dialogues within the ACP-EU institutions from senior officials to parliamentary and ministerial levels. The EU cooperates closely with Nauru to ensure our shared commitment to universal values and human rights principles are upheld at the international level.

The EU and Nauru hold local Political Dialogues to address common interests and challenges, such as climate change, oceans, human rights, development cooperation, economic and trade cooperation.  The last local Political Dialogue took place in 2019.

Nauru and the EU are engaged in the Pacific region through the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and Pacific Community (SPC). The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) coordinates the ACP-EU policy dialogues.

Nauru has been supported by the EU and its Member States through the Team Europe response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trade & Economic Relations between the EU and Nauru

Nauru is a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), categorised as a High Income Country.

Nauru’s economy peaked in the mid-1970s driven by phosphate mining, which declined from the early 1980s with serious environmental legacies. Since the exhaustion of phosphate reserves, Nauru has searched for alternative sources of revenue such as ecologically sustainable fisheries.

Nauru benefits from the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) regime which reduces or removes import duties from many of Nauru’s export products to the EU.

As part of the ACP Pacific group, Nauru can accede to the EU-Pacific Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), currently applied between the EU and Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and the Solomon Islands. The EPA would give Nauru duty-free, quota-free access for all its products to the EU market — the world’s largest single market.

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    Ship carrying goods

    The EPA gives all Nauru products duty-free, quota-free access to the EU market — the world’s largest single market. 

    Copyright: Julius Sliver