Eurostep formally launched its position paper, The EU-ACP Negotiations: Goals and Challenges for 2000 at the European Parliament's Development Council on Monday 28 September. In his presentation before the members of the Development Council, Mr Simon Stocker, Director of Eurostep, first stressed the importance of poverty eradication - the principal objective in both the EU and the ACP's negotiating mandates. He said the implementation of the new EU-ACP agreement should be continuously assessed against this objective. He then outlined five crucial aspects of the proposed agreement between the two parties: partnership and political dialogue; participation of civil society; trade and investment; investing in social development; and conflict prevention.
On partnership and participation of civil society, Mr. Stocker said that the new agreement should strive to make partnership between the EU and the ACP more of a reality than it has been in the past. Among the measures that need to be taken to ensure this, is the recognition of non-state actors (civil society organisations and the private sector) and the facilitation of their involvement as partners in the dialogue. In allaying the fears of possible competition between the state and civil society, Mr. Stocker said civil society should not be seen as providing alternatives to the state but being complementary in strengthening the legitimate role of the state.
He added that the new agreement also needs to be more transparent and accessible. In order to increase transparency a political EU-ACP inter-governmental assembly should be established along side the EU and ACP Council of Ministers, in which the parties to the agreement would negotiate the framework for its implementation. This assembly should meet on a regular basis and be accessible to accredited observers. He also called for the strengthening of the Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly with greater capacity to monitor and influence the conceptualisation and implementation of the agreement. The political assembly and a strengthened Joint Assembly would help increase knowledgeable involvement of non-state actors.
On trade and investment he said the new agreement should recognise: a) that the EU has to reform its own protected sectors of agriculture and fisheries before there could be any balance in trade agreements between the two parties; b) the real time required for ACPs to reform their economies and regional institutions as well as develop the capacity to negotiate trade agreements; c) the need for developing and vulnerable countries to maintain some form of protection of their emerging fragile sectors.
In an ensuing debate, Mr. Stocker replying to MEP John Corrie's question of whether a new political assembly would still be needed if the Joint Parliamentary Assembly is strengthened, stated that the role of the political assembly is needed to provide a transparent process alongside closed Council meetings, in which ACP NGOs in particular could play a role.
For a copy of Eurostep's paper you can contact the Eurostep secretariat
2. ACP-EU NEGOTIATIONS
Negotiations between the ACP and the EU on the future partnership between the two parties formally began with an ACP-EU Council meeting at the EU Council in Brussels on Wednesday 30 September. The EU represented by Ms. Ferrero-Waldner, President in office of the EU Development Council and Austrian Minister for Development, and EU Commissioner for Development, Mr Pinheiro, re-emphasised the need to alter the framework of partnership to adapt it to new world developments. In her speech Ms. Waldner, speaking on political dialogue, said, “.. dialogue will have to take place in different forms and in different compositions and be adapted to different problems. No one should be excluded from dialogue and no one should dominate it - so it is important that clear goals and 'rules of the game' should be defined during the negotiating phase.” Mrs. Billie Miller, President in Office of the ACP Council and Foreign Minister of Barbados, speaking on trade, said preferential access was still an important means of fostering the growth of ACP economies. To this end the ACP will be proposing core product groups in which current preferences should be maintained to allow ACP countries to develop necessary production capacity and competitiveness. She added “unequal partners cannot be expected to offer EU counties free and unrestricted access to their markets and impoverished economies, particularly where that reciprocal treatment has no counterpart in free access of labour.” On the proposed enlargement of the Union, Ms. Miller said that in the past the EU had not always taken advantage of its enlargement to facilitate the ACP's need for buoyant market opportunities. She said the planned absorption of the CEE states into the EU, with an additional 120 million consumers, is an opportunity to meet these problems. She however tempered this hope with the ACP's fear that enlargement would result in the EU looking inwards in an effort to address imbalances.
The negotiations are expected to last over a year. For more information on the presentations of the participants of the ACP-EU Council, you can contact the Eurostep secretariat.
3. DENMARK JOINS IN EU IN REVIEWING AID TO WARRING COUNTRIES IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Danish Development Minister, Poul Nielsen, this week announced that Denmark cannot indirectly pay for the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC. Speaking to South African radio, Mr. Nielsen said “if African governments opt for violent means, Danish taxpayers cannot fund such action.” This follows the announcement of the EU, which has this year pledged 565 million ECU to three of the warring countries - Namibia, Zimbabwe and Angola, to review its aid. The EU is urging the countries involved to use peaceful means to resolve the conflict if they want to continue receiving aid. This review is likely to affect Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi as well as Chad which is supporting DRC President Kabila. The war itself is threatening to spill into the rest of the continent with the possibility of Libya and South Africa joining in.
According to a Zimbabwean economist if the EU stops funding, other donors including the IMF could be influenced. The IMF has already stated that it will look at the fiscal implication of the DRC intervention when it meets Zimbabwean officials in November. It is reportedly costing the Zimbabwean Government one million dollars a day just to maintain its troops in the DRC.
4. CORRIGENDA
It was reported in last week's PAF (102) that some of the impact studies on ACP-EU Free Trade Agreements commissioned by the Commission would be out by the end of September. Eurostep has learnt that while three of the studies have been completed, the Commission will not make them available to the public till all six studies commissioned are ready. It is estimated that this will probably be at the beginning of next month.
5. IN BRIEF
The Centre for European Security and Disarmament (CESD) and the International Security Information Service, Europe (ISIS) last week organised a conference on the future of the EU's common and foreign security policy at the European Parliament in Brussels. The conference involved a debate on enhancing Europe's global role after the Amsterdam Treaty and three workshops discussing the topics: military futures: questions of hard security and institutional relations; EU approaches to regional security; and EU approaches to conflict prevention. For more information you can contact ISIS at Tel: 32 2 730 74 46/230 61 13; Fax 32 2 230 61 13/2467; E-Mail: isis-europeping.be
In an intervention at the recent ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly,
the ACP NGO Forum, responding to concerns about the accountability of civil
society organisations, stated that these organisations are accountable
to their constituencies and governments. The Forum called for a framework
in which consultative bodies - civil society, private sector and government
are represented. It called on the ACP-EU mechanism to provide support in
the form of three windows: an NGO capacity assistance programme; an NGO
fund for national development and; support for civil society participation
in this process.