1.
ACP-EU CONFERENCE ON THE PARTICIPATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COTONOU PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT 6-7 JULY,
BRUSSELS
The
forthcoming Belgian Presidency of the EU and the ACP Secretariat
will jointly organise an ACP-EU Conference on the Participation
of Civil Society in the implementation of the Cotonou Agreement
on 6-7 July at the Egmont Palace in Brussels. (See PAF 230). The
Conference generally aims to address issues regarding the
implementation of the provisions on civil society participation
in the Cotonou Agreement.
About
140 representatives of civil society organisations from the ACP
and 20 representatives of EU civil society organisations will
participate in the conference. About 40-50 governmental
representatives from the ACP and the EU will also participate in
the Conference.
A
draft agenda of the Conference states is objectives as:
i.
To take stock of the growing importance of the role of ACP civil
society in ACP-EU cooperation
ii.
To work out cooperation modalities between civil society and
government in ACP countries/regions, in particular in the area of
dialogue, programming and implementation of ACP-EU cooperation
iii.
To define capacity building priorities for civil society partners
and official ACP and EU bodies for effective participation in
ACP-EU cooperation
iv.
To work out and agree on a Draft Action Plan for civil society
participation in ACP-EU cooperation
Among
the expected outcomes of the Conference are:
§
The elaboration of a Draft Action Plan with priority actions
for civil society participation in the Cotonou ACP-EU Partnership
Agreement;
Two
preparatory meetings will precede the Conference. The first
meeting will be a preparatory meeting for the civil society
participants organised on 2-3 July by representatives of the ACP
Civil Society Forum. It will discuss a number of issues
including: Priority areas for action for civil society, and
Operationalising
the ACP Civil Society Forum. A declaration and plan of action
will be adopted at the end of this meeting.
The second preparatory meeting, organised by the ACP Secretariat,
aims to provide the Secretariat with an opportunity to develop a
working relationship between ACP civil society and the
Secretariat and ACP governments. It will examine issues such as
how to build a structured relationship within ACP civil society
and between ACP civil society, governments and the ACP
Secretariat.
The Conference and its preparatory meetings will be the first
major event organised by the Belgian Presidency during its tenure
in office between 1 July – 31 December 2001. The Conference
will also be one of the first comprehensive attempts to tackle
the question of operationalising the provisions on civil society
participation in the Cotonou Agreement, since the Agreement was
signed in June 2000. However, Eurostep and other EU NGDOs,
who were supposed to be consulted in the planning of this
conference, have expressed concern at the lack of seriousness in
the consultation of civil society for the planning of the
Conference by the organisers.
2.
GOTHENBURG EU SUMMIT CONCLUSIONS
The
conclusions of the EU Heads of State Summit in Gothenburg, Sweden
on 15- 16 June state inter alia, the following:
Regarding
Sustainable development, the EU will seek to make sustainable
development an objective in bilateral development cooperation and
in all international organisations and specialised agencies. The
EU's Sustainable Development Strategy forms part of it's
preparations for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable
Development. The EU will seek to achieve a "global
deal" on sustainable development at the Summit. The
Commission undertakes to present a communication no later than
January 2002 on how the EU is contributing and should
further contribute to global sustainable development. In this
context, the EU commits it self to reach the UN target for
official development assistance of 0.7% of GDP as soon as
possible and to achieve concrete progress towards reaching this
target before the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg in 2002.
On
the WTO, the conclusions state that the launch of an ambitious
and balanced new round of multilateral trade negotiations at the
4th WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha in November
remains the objective of the EU.
Concerning
co-operation with the UN, according to the conclusions,
substantial progress has been made in building an effective
partnership with the UN in the fields of conflict prevention and
crisis management as well as development cooperation,
humanitarian affairs, asylum policies and refugee assistance. The
Western Balkans, the Middle East and Africa will be given highest
priority in this reinforced cooperation.
3. FORTHCOMING
EVENTS UNDER THE BELGIAN PRESIDENCY OF THE 1 JULY-31 DECEMBER
2001
| 2-7
July, Brussels |
ACP-EU
Conference and preparatory meetings on the Participation
of Civil Society organised by the Belgian Government and
the ACP Secretariat |
| 9
July, Brussels |
Meeting
on Sustainable Development organised by the Belgian
Government |
| 11
July, Brussels |
Belgian
Development Minister, Eddy Boutmans presents development
priorities of Belgian Presidency to the Development
Committee of the European Parliament |
| 16
July, Brussels |
EU
Foreign Affairs Ministers meet |
| 8
September, Brussels |
EU
Foreign Affairs Ministers meet (Informal) |
| 14
September, Brussels |
EPLO
(EU NGO network) organise seminar on “Towards a
Coherent EU Conflict Prevention Policy on Africa” |
| 2
October, Brussels |
Conference
on EU Development co-operation with countries in conflict |
| 3-4
October, Brussels |
North-South
Belgian NGO Coalition organise seminar on EU Development
policy |
| 10
October |
North-South
Belgian NGO Coalition organise seminar on Financing for
Development |
| 16-17
October, Brussels |
European
Conference on Migration |
| 18
October, Brussels |
Hearing
on Central Africa in the European Parliament |
| 19
October, Ghent |
Informal
EU Council of Heads of State |
| 19
October, Ghent |
North-South
Belgian NGO Coalition organise Demonstration on Tobin
Tax, Peace and 3rd World Debt |
| 19-20
October, Ghent |
North-South
Belgian NGO Coalition organise Euro-Mediterranean NGO
Forum |
| 25-26
October, Antwerp |
European
Seminar on AIDS |
| 28
October – 1 November, Brussels |
ACP-EU
Joint Parliamentary Assembly |
| 29
October, Brussels |
EU
Foreign Affairs Minister meet |
| 8
November, Brussels |
EU
Development Ministers meet |
| 19
–20 November, Brussels |
EU
Foreign Affaires Ministers meet |
| 19-21
November, Antwerp |
North-South
Belgian NGO Coalition organise seminar on Rio+10 and
Sustainable Development |
| 23
November Brussels |
North-South
Belgian NGO Coalition organise seminar on ‘Europe
facing Impunity’ |
| 7-8
December, Brussels |
North-South
Belgian NGO Coalition organise seminar on Close of the
Belgian Presidency |
| 10
December, Brussels |
EU
Foreign Ministers meet |
| 14
December, Brussels-Laeken |
EU
Council of Heads of State |
Next
week’s PAF will have a special focus on the Belgian
Presidency of the EU.
4.
IN BRIEF
According
to a European Commission press release, the Commission has tabled
proposals designed to clarify existing rules in order to
facilitate access to life saving drugs for poor countries. These
plans were presented to the TRIPs Council of the WTO in Geneva
this week.
For
the first time, the World Bank will host its Annual Bank
Conference on Development Economics - Europe online. This
interactive online conference with live video will take place on
June 25 and 26, 2001 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central European
Time (8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Eastern
Daylight Time-Washington). The themes of the conference
will be "Globalisation, Poverty and Wealth" (June 25)
and "Regulation in a Globalised Economy" (June 26)
James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, will open the
online conference. To participate, register at: www.worldbank.org/abcde-europe
Papers and speeches will be posted on this website
The
Commission’s DG Development held its second brainstorming
dialogue meeting with EU development NGOs on 18 June. The two
items on the agenda were: 1) How can EU NGOs support civil
society participation in developing countries, and more
specifically in the framework of the Cotonou agreement?; and 2)
The follow-up to the LDC III UN conference and to the NGO Forum. However,
there were no concrete recommendations, proposals or commitments
for future work on the two items. EU NGDO networks are also still
waiting for a note from the Commission on how to structure this
new dialogue process between DG Development and EU NGDOs. (See
PAF 216)
EU
External Relations Commissioner, Chris Patten, expressed his hope
that the EU and the US would collaborate research on AIDS in
Africa following the EU-US Summit. When asked what the EU could
contribute to the future world fund to combat AIDS, he said, he
would not be surprised if the global EU contribution exceeds that
of the US.