Brussels, 01/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - The fourth ministerial negotiating conference between the European Union and the 71 ACP (African/Caribbean/Pacific) countries on the post-Lomé development partnership agreement, to be held in Brussels on Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 February, will certainly be very constructive. Given the substantial progress made during the ministerial conference in December (see EUROPE of 10 December, p.6 and 7), both parties are now convinced they can conclude within the time set in order to avoid any legal vacuum until the expiry, on 29 February, of the fourth revised Lomé Convention. The work will be chaired jointly by Luis Amado, President of the EU Council and Portuguese Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and John Horne, President of the ACP Council and Trade and Consumer Minister for St-Vincent-et-Grenadines. Poul Nielson, Development Commissioner and Philippe Lowe, European head of negotiations, will represent the Commission. We give below the main questions still unresolved:
Migration - clause for readmission of illegal immigrants. The ACP countries state they are willing to allow readmission for illegal nationals from their respective countries but reject the idea - as desired by the Union - of admitting illegal people in transit (people originating in another country having passed through their territory illegally to go to Europe clandestinely) and citizens without papers Illegal without papers for which their country of origin is difficult to identify.
Duration of the agreement: ACP States want thirty years, a duration they regard as essential to accompany the change asked of them. The Union does not want to go beyond 15 years.
Trade issues: remains to be discussed the issue of improving product access onto the Union's market during the preparatory eight-year period, before implementation of regional partnership agreements. The ACP are calling for an improvement and extension of the unilateral preferences they currently benefit from to compensate for the foreseeable injury stemming from granting zero duty access in 2004 to almost all products from all the least advanced countries. Aware of the erosion of current preferences, the EU is prepared to look at ways to remedy this, but will not agree to grant discrimination towards non-ACP developing countries.
Place of signature of the agreement: in the ACP group, Fiji and Togo are the two countries being considered to host the event. The European Union does not conceal that it would prefer (to Togo, with which cooperation has been suspended) a country that could serve as a symbol, having embodied in recent years the shared values of respect for human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law reiterated in the new agreement. Given Fiji's geographical distance, agreement will probably be found on a third country.
The Union's financial offer for the ninth EDF (EUR 13.5 billion, on top of which 9 billion in unused funds from preceding EDFs, with a possibility of 1 billion extra in 2004 depending on the ACP states' rate of fund use), is expected to be accepted by the ACP group. According to Philippe Lowe, the detailed presentation of the bid to the ACP states convinced them. "The ACP countries understood that we are no longer talking about virtual money, without spending commitments, but about a common challenge, which consists of improving the efficacy of aid delivered on the ground, through permanent follow-up and a stepped-up rate of spending."