1. 3rd
ACP-EU JOINT PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY
The 3rd
ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, since the signing of the
Cotonou Agreement, took place in Brussels this week. The Assembly
brings together an equal number of
parliamentarians/representatives from ACP countries on the one
hand, and a group of members of the European Parliament.
During the
opening speeches to the Assembly, the President of the ACP
Council, Prince Ulukalala of Tonga stated that there was a need
to institutionalise dialogue with civil society in ACP-EU
Cooperation, but then cautioned that advocates of this would have
to be patient with many ACP governments, who did not yet have
structures for such dialogue. The Co-President of the Assembly,
MEP John Corrie (UK, Conservative), in his speech, quoted a
World Bank estimate that 10 million additional people [including
many in the ACP] would suffer from poverty next year as a result
of the recent terrorist attacks in the US.
But during a
session in which the European Commission answered questions put
to them by the parliamentarians, the European Commissioner for
Development, Poul Nielson, argued that there should be no
significant implications of the terrorist attack on the ACP. He
said that though increased aid had been made available for the
populations of Afghanistan, these operations had been funded from
the emergency aid chapter of the European Community budget, which
had no impact on EU development aid programmes.
In response
to a question put by MEP Max van den Berg (NL, Socialist) on why
ACP Country Strategy Support Papers were not being made
available, even though a number of them have been finalised, Mr
Nielson said that the strategy papers could only be made public
once they have finalised and signed. To date only one
Strategy Paper (Cameroon) has been signed. Eurostep and
many other ACP and EU civil society actors have argued that if
civil society is going to effectively contribute to the
programming process, as implied by the Cotonou Agreement, then
this process needs to be transparent. This should involve making
draft Country Support Strategy Papers public. The Commission
had previously argued against this, claiming that many ACP
Governments would not allow the papers to be made public, however
many of the ACP parliamentarians that Eurostep
was in contact with, stated that they did not see any reason why
their governments would refuse to make the Strategy Papers
public.
MEP Glenys
Kinnock (UK, Socialist) also questioned the Commissioner for
Development on the seriousness and effectiveness of impact
studies paid for by the Commission on new ACP-EU trading
arrangements (Economic Partnership Agreements). The studies will
be carried out over a period of only 4-6 weeks and the Commission
will only provide € 65 000 per ACP sub region for the
studies. The Commissioner was not very clear in his response
on how effective these studies could be, given the extremely
short time in which they will be carried out and the little
resources provided, but he also seemed to express his misgivings
on the timing and the resources provided.
On a question
put by MEP Marie-Arlette Carlotti (France, Socialist) on the use
of funds taken from the ACP-EU budget (EDF) for the global fund
against AIDS, the Commissioner stated that half of the € 120
million would be taken from the EDF. However, this would have to
be discussed with the ACP.
During question
time with the presidencies of the ACP and EU Council it was
revealed that only one EU country (Denmark) had, to date,
ratified the Cotonou Agreement. 27 ACP countries have ratified
the Cotonou Agreement. If the Agreement is to come into force by
June 2002, as planned, all EU Member States and a majority of the
77 ACP signatories will have to have completed its ratification.
There was also
confusion as to the rules governing civil society actors who have
traditionally been invited the Assembly as observers. Following
some discussion, when ACP and EU civil society actors asked to
make one intervention during the Assembly, Mr Renwick Rose of the
Windward Island Farmers Association, representing the ACP Civil
Society Forum, was finally allowed to make a statement. Mr Rose
stated that involvement of civil society in the implementation of
the Cotonou Agreement is complementary to the role of governments
and parliamentarians. He called on the Assembly to support the
recently agreed ACP Civil Society Action Plan adopted at the
ACP-EU Conference on Civil Society held in July 2001(See PAF 235
and 236). According to the Cotonou Agreement, the Joint
Parliamentary Assembly is supposed to organise regular contacts
with the actors of civil society in order to obtain their views
on attaining the objectives of the Cotonou Agreement. This was
not stated in the previous Lomé Conventions.
The Assembly
discussed and adopted new rules of procedure, which among other
things stated how the Assembly would relate to civil society
actors. According to these rules, civil society actors may
send delegates to the Assembly as observers. EU NGO networks had
put forward more specific wording on the role of civil society in
the Assembly. Some provisions of the new rules were deferred for
further discussion at a later date, after objections by MEP
Caroline Lucas (UK, Green). The PAF will provide details on this
next week.
EU Trade
Commissioner Pascal Lamy in an address to the Assembly stated
that the Commission supports the Assembly’s wish of the
establishment of a consultative parliamentary assembly within the
WTO. According to the Trade Commissioner, a lot of progress
had been made in the last two yeas since the failed WTO
Ministerial meeting in Seattle. However, MEP Caroline Lucas
raised the issue with the Commissioner that there was a risk that
next week’s WTO Ministerial meeting in Doha would end up
just as big a failure as the Seattle meeting, because the WTO had
failed to gain any legitimacy since Seattle.
East Caribbean
States Ambassador, Edwin Laurent expressed his worry about
statements that Latin American states have only agreed to support
the ACP and EU’s request for a waiver for preferential trade
to the ACP on condition that the banana trade regime is taken out
of the Cotonou Agreement. Mr Lamy confirmed Mr Laurent’s
concerns and called on the Ambassador to raise the issue with the
Latin American states.
The Assembly
adopted a number of resolutions on a wide range of issues. Next
week’s PAF will endeavour to provide more detail on this. Finally
it was announced that the 4th ACP-EU
Parliamentary Assembly would take place in Cape town, South
Africa on 18-21 March 2002.
2. EU
DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL – 8 NOVEMBER 2001
EU Development
Ministers will meet for the EU Development Council on 8 November
2001 in Brussels under the Chairmanship of the Belgian Presidency
in office of the EU. Items on the agenda include:
Implementation of the new European Community Development Policy;
the presentation of the first annual report on development
cooperation by the Commission; new EU strategies towards Asia and
Latin America; the timetable for achieving the target of giving
0.7% of EU member State GNP in aid; adoption of a resolution of
fisheries; a plan of action of mainstreaming gender issues in
development cooperation; and the results of the Belgian
Presidency Conferences on Civil Society and Conflict prevention.
The ACP Civil Society Action Plan will also be presented to the
EU Development Ministers.
3. IN BRIEF
Consultations,
under article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement, which could lead to
the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Cotonou Agreement are set
begin between the southern African country and the EU. This
was decided at the last EU General Affairs Council.
The European
Parliament has called for further reform of EU Development
policies. This should include, inter alia, a new definition of
priorities, incorporation of international summits objectives on
poverty in EU development policy, and incorporation of the budget
for ACP countries (the EDF) in the general EU annual budget.
According
to the European press, the European Commission has dropped
demands that developing countries should be allowed to import
generic copies of life saving drugs, ahead of next week’s
WTO meeting in Doha. An earlier paper tabled earlier this
month was in favour of allowing developing countries to import
generic life saving drugs, but this measure does not now feature
in the draft EU text for the WTO ministerial. According to
Oxfam, the UK and Germany had lobbied over the past fortnight for
the withdrawal of this feature from the EU paper.