Abstract
The European Union is a growing and developing organization which is becoming more and more important. That's why its relations with other countries in a more and more globalized world are also moving. The EU relations with the developing world are as old as its creation but they have undoubtedly evolved since the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Internal and external factors are responsible for most of the evolution: the enlargement notably brings new concerns and the EU is affected by the international impact. The relations with the Third World always have to be redefined.
But the first concern is to define the "Third World". What and where exactly is it? What are the adopted criteria: geography, economy performance, political regime, poverty, etc? Obviously, the definition shouldn't take into account a single criterion, which could reveal its inadequacy. A classification by incomes seems to be useful but not sufficient, because it does not reveal necessarily the development situation of the country. Certainly the Human Development Index (HDI), which is still imperfect but offers a new perspective, has to be observed as giving a better assessment of "development".
