Brussels, 15/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - The ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) group of countries is determined to reposition itself in its relations with the EU and on the international stage, and to fight for the economic partnerships agreements (EPAs) negotiated with the EU to be supportive of sustainable development and to strengthen ACP regional integration. In this time of change in the EU and in the run-up to the third EU-Africa Summit, in Libya on 29-30 November at which it is hoped that the bilateral relations between the EU and this ACP sub-region will be consolidated, debate at the 92nd Session of the ACP Council of Ministers was dominated by the future of the group and deadlocked trade negotiations (see EUROPE 10253).
“With the expiry of the Cotonou Agreement in 10 years' time and the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty in December last year, the ACP Group feels that it's time for it to seriously discuss its very own future. The Council has adopted a proposal for an Ambassadorial Working Group on the future perspectives of the ACP Group,” Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Foreign Minister of Guyana and Council chairwoman told press. The group wants to give the ACP Secretariat a new role which goes far beyond internal matters, so that the voice of the 79 ACP countries is heard, and to forge alliances on the international stage.
New alliances with the emerging economies? A number of factors stoke the fears that the ACP as a group will disappear and promote the desire to reposition. “The Lisbon Treaty makes no specific reference to the long-standing partnership between the EU and the ACP countries. We do not know if the EDF will be incorporated into the budget or if, in future, ACP countries will have predictable funding sources. We fear a weakening of the ACP-EU partnership,” said Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Secretary General of the group. One need look no further than the importance placed by the EU on its relations with its eastern neighbours and with North America, and the radical reform of its relations with Africa and the Caribbean through bilateral strategies.
“The ACP countries must reposition to be more effective. We realise that, despite our number, we have not made use of the power of our critical mass: we make up the majority of the poor states,” Ibn Chambas pointed out. The new positioning of the group will afford it the opportunity to “draw the benefits offered by other partnerships, with the emerging countries in Latin America and Asia,” he stated. Thus, the ACP Group Secretariat will have to act “as an inter-governmental organisation whose sole purpose is not just to convene meetings” but to “better serve the interests of our members”.
The EU may be concerned that EPAs might burden the third EU-Africa Summit, the ACP Group takes the view that the issue must be aired at the highest political level. Thus, it is counting on the forthcoming EU-Africa Summit to break the deadlock in negotiations. The ACP Council, seriously worried by the lack of progress in negotiations and by the “strong pressure exerted by European negotiators to get the ACP countries to sign agreements which do not fully address their concerns and their interests” adopted a resolution calling for account to be taken of the different weighting needed in trade liberalisation in light of the levels of development of the ACP countries.
EPAs: call for EU flexibility. “The ACP Council has issued a resolution in which we expressed the view that our various member states need to scale up efforts to complete the negotiations while urging the EU to show greater flexibility and understanding by removing some of the obstacles standing in the way of a speedy and successful completion of the negotiations. In particular, we call on the EU to exercise bold political courage in showing the required flexibility and sensitivity to the needs of Least Developed and Vulnerable Countries, bearing in mind the range of existing flexibilities in the Regional Trading Agreements (RTAs) already accommodated under the WTO international trading regime. In seeking a speedy resolution to the current impasse, we are inviting the Africa-EU Summit to address the key challenges inhibiting progress with a view to arriving at a mutually acceptable solution for all the parties concerned,” Council President Rodrigues-Birkett said.
The ACP Group calls on the EU to keep in place Regulation 1528 on market access for ACP products until full EPAs are concluded and implemented, and, with talks continuing, to extend the scheme to non-least developed country (non-LDC) ACP states, whether or not they have initialled interim or full EPAs.
It also invites the EU to include in the EPAs a safeguard clause specifically for agriculture while allowing ACP countries the option of using the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) during WTO negotiations. This is because agriculture forms the cornerstone of the economies of most ACP countries and regions and the means of subsistence of many small-scale farmers have to be protected. ACP regions made up principally of LDCs should be covered by the “Everything but Arms” scheme, the ACP Council says, sure that such a position could be argued successfully at the WTO. (A.N./transl.rt)