The relationship between the European Union (EU) and the ACP group changed significantly during the 1990s. The historical ties which had been the most prominent features of earlier agreements had been eroded and the ACP countries’ importance to the EU was diminished. In the light of the completion of the Single Market Programme in 1992 and due to the end of the Cold War, the EU had turned towards development issues which were a bit "closer to home", namely in Central and Eastern Europe. Although the relationship between the EU and the ACP countries was continued it was marked by the changing political situation of its time. The wave of democratization which reached many developing countries after the end of the Cold War led to a previously unknown politicization of development cooperation. Additionally, the continuing absence of the economic rewards expected from Lomé, its continuing incompatibility with General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO) provisions and the complexity the Lomé Conventions had assumed were reasons why a new agreement was drawn up in Cotonou, the capital of Benin.