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1. EU DISCUSSES HOW TO FINANCE HIPC INTIATIVE
Permanent Representatives of the EU Member States met this week to discuss the European Community’s participation in the IMF/World Bank HIPC debt initiative. Discussions were based on a Commission paper on the issue. This discussion is meant to develop the position that the EU will defend at the Bretton Woods institutions meeting in Washington on 28-29 September.
The Commission paper sets out three options that could be considered as complementary elements of a strategy for financing the EU’s additional contribution in line with the objectives of the Cologne European Summit. The options are as follows: 1) The Community could allocate additional resources, out of the 8th EDF, to facilities to support the structural adjustment of ACP countries eligible for the HIPC initiative. 2) The Community on a case by case basis, following agreement with the EDF Committee, could provide support for operations for the partial repurchase of the debt of eligible ACP countries by using the banking interests of EDFs. The Commission however, underlines out that these interests will not be enough to cover the increased contribution required by the Community. It therefore proposes that resources not earmarked under the 8th EDF be used. 3) The Community could increase its contribution to the Fiduciary Fund of the HIPC initiative of the HIPC initiative on two conditions: a) the effort is fairly shared between the different actors; b) the additional sums paid by the EU do not come exclusively out of unallocated EDF resources.
As taking resources from the unused funds of the EDF for the HIP initiative would require a joint approval from ACP-EU Joint Council, the EU can only state its intentions and announce that it is discussing the issue with its ACP partners at the Washington meeting.
Eurostep, in response to the proposal for the use of EDF funds for the HIPC initiative, has sent a letter to the new EU Commissioner for Development, Mr Poul Nielson, and EU Finance Ministers requesting that any money for the HIPC initiative should be additional to EDFs. Instead of EDFs, the letters propose the use of monies that some EU Member States transfer annually from their development budgets to other budget lines, due to the slow disbursement of the EDF.
2. COMMISSION MEET ACP NATIONAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORISING OFFICERS
ACP National and Regional Authorising Officers (ACP ministers in charge of managing their countries programmes with the EU under the Lomé Conventions) met with the Commission during the 5th meeting of ACP National Authorising Officers (NAOs) and Regional Authorising Officers (RAOs) in Brussels this week.
The Commission took the opportunity to advance its’s new proposals on a number of issues that are being discussed in the negotiations for a new ACP-EU framework agreement. Concerning STABEX and SYSMIN (export revenue stabilising instruments), the Commission is proposing that a single, long term, all encompassing instrument cater for the fluctuations of ACP export earnings instead of STABEX and SYSMIN. The Commission is proposing that the EU take in account each ACP country’s dependence on its exports. Coverage would be broader than the products STABEX and SYSMIN currently cater for. A flexible calculation method would be devised to ensure that resources for export stabilisation are used more rationally. There would be also no link between specific products, rather payments will be triggered by shortfalls in a country’s total export earnings.
According to Mr Bernard Petit of the Commission at the start of the negotiations 14 out of 15 EU member States wanted STABEX and SYSMIN to disappear completely. These Member States could now call for an end to all discussions on the subject of export stabilisation, if the ACP insist on keeping STABEX and SYSMIN.
On the programming of aid the Commission proposed the abandonment of the system of National Indicative Programmes (NIPs) in favour of the use of country strategies and support programmes prepared jointly by the Commission and the ACP. To date each ACP country was supposed to draft its own NIP that declares its programme of co-operation with the Community. The NIP itself was supposed to be drawn from the country’s own strategy paper. In addition the Commission regularly prepared its own strategy papers for each ACP country. The Commission’s strategy papers for ACP countries have differed considerably from ACP’s own country strategies. According to the Commission most ACP countries have failed to draft their own NIPs. In reality they are drafted to a large part by the Commission who base them on their own(Commission) strategy papers for ACP countries. The result has been that NIPs have differed considerably from the ACP’s own strategy papers. The Commission is now proposing that, following collaboration between the EU and the ACP on the strategy paper, both parties jointly prepare a long term country support programme equivalent to the NIP. The advantage of the new system would be that there would be collaboration at the strategy phase that occurs before the programming phase. Also ACP countries will no longer have sole responsibility for drafting their own programmes. The Commission stated that the joint strategy papers and support programmes should be devised in a transparent way with the participation of civil society actors. It is worth noting that to date Commission strategy papers and NIPs have been classified as internal documents by the Commission. Very recently the Commission has began posting NIPs on its web-site subject to the agreement of the ACP country concerned. The Commission’s new proposal is yet to be discussed with EU Member States.
3. EU NGO NETWORK MEETING ON ACP-EU NEGOTIATIONS
Further to the information provided in last week’s PAF (147), we can now provide more information on the EU NGO network seminar on the ACP-EU Negotiations held on 16-17 September.
The NGOs and NGO networks agreed to focus on the following areas during the remaining months of the negotiations: trade, financial package for the next EDF, financial instruments, and civil society participation. A number of lobby activities to further the agreed positions in these areas were agreed to.
On trade, the NGOs agreed to organise a letter campaign to lobby EU national government and the Commission. On the instruments of co-operation, it was decided a short position paper be prepared to communicate the NGOs’ position to the negotiators. On civil society participation a meeting between ACP and EU civil society organisations and the negotiators was proposed. This meeting would involve the presentation of a joint ACP-EU civil society position paper.
Concern was also expressed on the following areas: essential elements, debt and migration. However no concrete actions were proposed in these areas. The majority of NGOs present at the meeting also indicated that they would be continuing their work on the ACP-EU partnership beyond the conclusion of the ACP-EU negotiations in February 2000.
4. MEPs SHOW SUPPORT FOR EUROSTEP ACTION PLAN FOR BETTER EC AID TO EDUCATION
A number of MEPs have expressed support for the Eurostep’s action plan for better EC aid to education that was launched during the European Parliament Plenary session in Strasbourg last week. Ms Glenys Kinnock MEP (UK), in a speech during the launch, called for the European Parliament's Development Committee to hold a hearing on basic social service provision and EC aid. This would be timed to coincide with the final preparatory work for the Review of the World Summit for Social Development in June 2000.
Other MEP members of the ACP-EU Joint Assembly also agreed to take forward some of the specific recommendations in Eurostep’s position paper on education. These include the incorporation of an article in the successor Lomé Convention that will explicitly refer to international targets on education and investment in education. It will also guarantee the participation of people who use education systems in their design. It is hoped that progress will be made this issue during the Joint Assembly meeting in the Bahamas from October 11-15th.
5. IN BRIEF
It has been reported that the Commission is
studying the possibility of the inclusion of East Timor in the
ACP group once it becomes independent. The Commission has
refused to deny or confirm this report. You may recall that one
of the areas of disagreement between the ACP and the EU in their
current negotiations has been the rules governing accession to
the ACP.
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