PAF ProActive File - Regular News Update from Eurostep

No. 304
28 February 2003

4^th ACP-EC MINISTERIAL TRADE COMMITTEE MEETING - ST LUCIA – EU NGO COTONOU MONITORING GROUP SENDS LETTER WITH EXPECTATIONS TO LAMY

It is the hope of many observers that the 4^th ACP-EC Trade Ministerial Committee meeting taking place this weekend (1-2 March) in St Lucia will resolve a number of sticking points in the ongoing ACP-EU negotiations for new trade arrangements. Not much progress has been made in the negotiations, which started last September. Though the negotiations are supposed to last till the end of 2007, the first phase (they are divided in two phases) comes to an end this September. In these negotiations the EU is proposing the establishment of free trade based regional economic partnership agreements with sub-regions of the ACP to replace the current non-reciprocal preferential trade enjoyed by the ACP. The first phase is supposed to deal with principles and objectives that concern the ACP group as a whole, while in the second phase the negotiations will be conducted at a sub-regional level.

Items on the agenda of the ministerial trade committee meeting include discussions on the state of play of capacity building support for the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations, coherence between the WTO and EPA negotiations, and sustainable impact assessment studies on EPAs. Also on the agenda are other trade questions relating to: the preparation for the 5^th WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, the state of play of the WTO negotiations, mediation between the EU, Thailand and the Philippines on exports of canned tuna to the EU, EU consultations with Australia and Brazil on sugar, and a new EU proposal on an integrated framework for fisheries partnership agreements with third countries.

The coordination group of EU NGDOs known as the Cotonou Monitoring Group, which includes Eurostep and other Brussels based EU NGDO networks, has sent a letter to EU Trade Commissioner Mr Pascal Lamy on the occasion of the Ministerial Committee meeting, putting forward civil society expectations in three key areas: 1) transparency and dialogue, 2) resources, 3) external effects of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

On transparency and dialogue the Cotonou Monitoring Group call for more openness around the negotiations and for an effective process of dialogue and consultation with civil society to be established. Regarding resources, the civil society organisations call on the Commission to address the adverse adjustment costs within ACP countries that will be incurred with new trade arrangements, with resources comparable in relative terms to that made by the EU in the ‘pre-accession countries’, in advance of these countries’ participation in the EU common market. Concerning the CAP, the Group calls upon the Commission to address the external effects of the ongoing CAP reform in the ACP-EU negotiations as a matter of urgency, with the view to maintaining and enhancing the real value of existing ACP agricultural preferences and ensuring the effective protection of ACP markets from dumping and unfair competition. For a copy of the letter see http://www.eurostep.org/pubs/position/acp-eu-cotonou/acp030225.pdf

Information on the negotiations is also available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/bilateral/acp/epas.htm

EUROSTEP MEETING ON THE ROLE OF EU DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION IN THE WORLD

Eurostep this week organised a meeting titled ‘Europe in the World & the Role for Development Co-operation: The Expectations of Civil Society’. The aim of the meeting was to bring voices of civil society from Asia, Africa and Latin America into the debate on the future role of the EU in the world. Two panels were set up discussing: a) Europe’s social dimension: the basis for global co-operation, and b) Development and humanitarian policy – its place in the future.

Speakers included: Ms. Mamounata Cisse, Deputy Secretary General of the ICFTU, Professor Babu Mathew of South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication, India and Ms. Fiona Black of the Jamaica Dairy Herd Services.

For more information on the meeting you can contact the Eurostep Secretariat.

3. FORTHCOMING EVENTS

1 March, Brussels	4^th Meeting of the Joint ACP EC Ministerial Trade Committee
4-7 March Brussels	European Commission DG Trade-Civil society dialogue meetings on trade http://trade-info.cec.eu.int/civil_soc/intro1.php
6 March, Brussels	Praesidium meets on the European Convention
10 March, Cuba	EU Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Poul Nielson visits Cuba
13 March, Paris	Conference on ‘The Union on the International Stage’
13 March, Brussels	The Praesidium meets on the Convention of the future of Europe
14 March, India	EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy visits India
18 March, Brussels	BCC half-day conference on ‘Key Issues for the World Trade Organisation in 2003.’ Contact phone: + 32 /2 644 1333
18 March, Brussels	European Parliament, Committee on Development and Co-operation, Public Hearing on ‘Education for All’
18 - 20 March Bonn	Africa at Friedrich Ebert Foundation, ‘A New course for Africa?’ Political ideas, literature, tendencies, experiences, arts.
31 March – 3 April, Brazzaville, Congo	ACP – EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, 5^th session
21 March, Brussels	European Council: EU heads of state and government meet

COMMISSION PROGRESS REPORT ON ITS ACTION PLAN ON THE FIGHT AGAINST COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

The European Commission this week published a progress report on its implementation of the action plan it adopted two years ago on fighting communicable diseases (AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria) in developing countries. According to the report, while some progress has been made in the fight against these diseases a lot remains to be done.

The action plan is focussed on prevention and defines a series of actions for strengthening the impact of existing interventions, improving the availability of essential medicines at affordable prices and encouraging research and development in combating the diseases.

According to the progress report, work on access to medicines appears to be the most encouraging. The differentiated prices strategy defined by the Commission for facilitating access of the poorest countries to cheap medicines has gained support and has been applied by some medicine manufacturers in their sales to poor countries. However EU action to get the WTO to agree that intellectual property protection should be waived for a wide range of medicines that developing countries require has been opposed by the US.

The Commission’s contribution to the global fund in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria was € 120 million in 2002. Regarding research on this issue, the Commission intends to invest € 200 million into more basic research.

On the whole, the objectives of improving the action plan have not been realised, given the increasing number of deaths from the diseases. The reasons for this are said to be the absence of collective action on a wide scale at either national or global level.