|
The Working Group on Regional Co-operation in ACP countries
The Joint Assembly Working Group on Regional Co-operation presented its final report to the 28th ACP-EU Joint Assembly on 30 March in Strasbourg. In his presentation, the rapporteur of the Working Group, UK MEP John Corrie, stressed that regional co-operation should not be an alternative to national co-operation but only be complementary to it. He said some regions have already made huge steps towards improving regional co-operation such as West Africa and the Caribbean. Here many new institutions set up are already bringing benefits to countries within the region. However, the rapporteur emphasised that it would be a mistake to propound a single model of regional co-operation for all regions.
A resolution accompanying the report stated, among other things: that regional integration programmes should become the cornerstone around which priority sectors for co-operation should be articulated; the EU should provide technical support for regional security agreements and regionalised mediation structures that allow ethnic, linguistic, social, economic and religious tensions to be monitored; the EU should support monetary co-operation in the ACP and use the introduction of the Euro to encourage monetary stability; the ACP-EU Council of Ministers and Joint Assemblies should be supplemented by regional/sub-regional level meetings of these bodies, considering that such meetings would enable other actors in co-operation, (the private sector and civil society) to be more fully involved. The report and its resolution were later adopted by the Assembly.
Conclusions of Regional Seminar of ACP-EU Economic and Social Interest Groups
Conclusions of the first regional seminar of EU and ACP economic and social interest groups held in Dakar, 18-19 March was distributed in a paper by the European Economic and Social Community (ESC) at the Joint Assembly. The European ESC is an EU institution that aims to involve economic and social interest groups in the EU. Its members are drawn from economic and social interest groups in Europe. Members are nominated by national governments and appointed by the EU Council. The members belong to three categories: employers, workers and farmers. The ESC advises the Commission, the EU Council and the European Parliament. It is supposed to represent the different sectors of civil society in the EU.
This seminar hosted by the European ESC in conjunction with the Senegal ESC, examined the practicalities of extending the ACP-EU partnership to economic and social players, with a view to involving them in the drafting and the implementation of national and regional development policies. Three working sessions looked at: the consultation of economic and social players in the preparation of the national and regional indicative programmes; decentralised co-operation; and negotiations on the renewal of the Lomé Convention and the role of the ESC.
The conclusions of the seminar, summed up in a paper titled the Dakar Declaration state, among other things, that: socio-occupational organisations continue to be left outside the process of drawing up ACP-EU co-operation programmes. They are neither consulted during the programme preparation phase, nor involved in evaluation. According to the Declaration, ACP-EU partnership schemes currently concentrate to a disproportionate degree on NGOs at the expense of economic and social groupings. The Declaration calls for, inter alia: a) ACP and EU authorities to channel more information on the Lomé process to civil society organisations; b) the newly set up ACP/EU Follow up Committee of the European ESC to be recognised as a joint EU/ACP consultative committee to advise the ACP/EU Council of Ministers and Joint Assembly; c) the need for all countries to have a regulatory framework allowing socio-economic organisations to flourish; d) the Commission’s delegations in the ACP to appoint a person responsible for contacts with socio-economic organisations; e) promotion of co-operation and communication between civil society organisations in the ACP; and f) recognition of the key role played by the ESC in organising dialogue between ACP-EU economic and social players.
In an informal meeting with Eurostep secretariat representatives at the Joint Assembly (Ms Brita Nielsen and Mr Guggi Laryea), a representative of the European ESC stated that there are future plans to continue such meetings (one in Brussels every year and 1-2 in the South). Later on there will be a country by country monitoring process. The next ESC conference on civil society in Brussels will take place in October.
For a copy of the Dakar Declaration you can contact the Eurostep secretariat.
Eurostep’s speech at the ACP-EU Joint Assembly
Ms. Brita Nielsen made a short presentation on behalf of Eurostep, paying tribute to the out-going co-president of the Assembly, UK MEP Lord Plumb. She said NGOs are grateful for the work he put in, so as they could be recognised as official observers at the Joint Assembly. Ms. Nielsen however lamented that to date civil society’s efforts to participate in other areas of the Lomé process continues to be an uphill struggle. Though both the ACP and the EU have agreed that one of the guidelines to their partnership will be the involvement of a broad range of actors in their current negotiations, to date, neither party has put forward concrete proposals on how to engage civil society. Ms. Brita Nielsen referred the Joint Assembly participants to Eurostep’s written statement to the Joint Assembly proposing on strategies and actions to help enable the ACP and EU to achieve poverty eradication. (See PAF 127)
2. EU RESERVES ITS RIGHT TO APPEAL WTO DECISION ON ITS BANANA REGIME
The panel of WTO experts has once again ruled against the EU’s banana trade regime with ACP countries. In its view the revision of the regime carried out by the EU is insufficient. The EU last year adopted reforms on its banana trade system with traditional banana producers in the ACP, following a WTO panel ruling against its previous regime. The panel's ruling was on the grounds that the EU's regime was discriminatory towards other banana producers, particularly those from Latin America. The US has spearheaded a campaign supporting bananas from Latin American countries, which are marketed by US company Chiquita, against the EU trade regime.
The panel considers that the US is entitled to apply commercial sanctions in the sum of $191.4 million against the EU. However the panel’s report states that the US’s unilateral sanctions currently in place remain illegal as they are set at a level well over double that set by the panel. To comply with the law, the US thus has to immediately stop its unilateral action
EU Commissioner for Trade Sir Leon Brittan, in a statement said the EU would abide by the ruling but reserves the right to appeal. It will also pursue proceedings at the WTO against the unilateral American measures already taken. He said it is impossible to anticipate the way in which regime will be modified before EU experts examine the WTO panel’s ruling.
According to European press reports, the WTO’s condemnation of the banana regime is much clearer this time. It even questions the very principle of trade preferences to ACP States. The findings of the panel have been communicated to the different parties involved (EU, US and Ecuador) and will be made public in the coming days.
3. EU-ACP CONFERENCE ON ACTORS AND PROCESSES OF EU-ACP CO-OPERATION
MEP Michel Rocard organised a conference on the Actors and Processes of the Co-operation between the EU and the ACP countries on 6-8 April in Brussels. The conference aimed to push the debate on concrete proposals on the fundamental revision of the modalities and management of financial and technical co-operation in the Lomé process. Closed meetings involving Commission, the European Parliament and ACP representatives were held on 6-7 April. An opening meeting was held on 8 April to disclose the results of the conference. The findings of the conference can be found on the web-site: http//: www.ue-acp.org An international forum for discussion will be open to all actors and observers, on this site. This will allow for follow-up discussions on the seminar over a period of six months
© Eurostep. Please address comments to [email protected]