Brussels, 22/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Concerns about tension between North and South Sudan and the situation in Sudan will be on the agenda at the Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) meeting in Horsen (Denmark) on Monday 28 to Wednesday 30 May. This will be the 23rd such meeting. They take place every six months among the 79 MPs from African, Caribbean and Pacific states and the 79 MEPs, who discuss various issues of interest to development cooperation among Cotonou Agreement partners. Mogens Lykketoft, speaker of the Danish national assembly and Louis Michel (ALDE, Belgium), along with Musikari Kombo, the two Assembly co-presidents and the Danish prime minister, Helle Thorining-Schmidt, will open the assembly meeting.
Alongside voting through two emergency resolutions, the JPA will discuss the impact on society and the environment of mining in ACP countries (co-rapporteurs Job Ndugai, an MP from Tanzania, and Michèle Rivasi MEP) and the political impact of the Libyan conflict on ACP nations and EU member states neighbouring Libya. The politicians are expected to pass non-emergency resolutions about the mining and Libyan questions. The partners will hold their usual question time with the EU development commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, and the Danish cooperation and development minister, Friis Bach.
The JPA will be addressed by the EU trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht, who will make a progress report on negotiations over an economic partnership agreement (EPA) between the EU and groups of ACP nations. The latest development is the ratification of an interim EPA by four central and East African countries (see EUROPE 10616). Ibn Chambas, the secretary general of the ACP Group, welcomed the ratification as showing that the negotiating process has some life in it. He said it paved the way for the signature of a full EPA, but flexibility would be required because conditions varied from one country to the next and the regional integration process was weakest in central Africa. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on Monday, he said that it was important to avoid using any approach that could form an obstacle to regional integration.
The JPA is expected to have a discussion with the EU climate action commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, about a joint commitment by the EU and ACP nations to tackle climate change. There will also be a discussion with Danish climate, energy, buildings and sustainable development minister, Martin Lidegaard, about the Rio +20 sustainable development conference (20-22 June). (AN/transl.fl)