Brussels, 07/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The ACP regional integration organisations, meeting in Brussels (see EUROPE of 5 May, p.10), have made progress in the preparations of trade negotiations with the Union which are to begin in September 2002 in view of concluding regional economic partnership agreements (REPAs) applicable in 2008. Their exchange of views with Commission representatives (Directors General of Development and Trade DGs) allowed for certain ambiguities to be removed linked to the interpretation of the provisions of the Cotonou Agreement.
The following principles to be observed in future negotiations were defined:
(1) between the ACPs: principle of coordination between the regions negotiating with the EU, so as to avoid a fragilization of the ACP and ensure that the advantages secured by one region are also by others. The ACP negotiating group will not only bring together regional organisations, but also horizontal groups of the ministers concerned (example: ministers of trade, culture and education for questions of intellectual property), representatives of civil society, and observers from other countries; (2) Regarding the Union: principle of the respect of the Cotonou Agreement. The ACPs once again pointed out that there was no formal link between regional planning and the definition of ACP regional integration organisations negotiating with the EU. The Europeans recognised this fact, yet expressed their concerns for coherence between regional cooperation and future agreements. The ACPs also stressed that the definition of regional negotiating entities would follow the realisation of impact assessment studies; (3) abandoning the name REPAs for that of EPA (economic partnership agreement), which better reflects the possibility, for one country that can do so, to negotiate alone with the Union.
Explaining the difficulties of certain ACP regions to the press, Mr. Lansana Kouyate (Guinea), Executive Secretary of the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), cited two examples concerning West Africa for the pogramming of the 9th Edf. The first difficulty is of knowing which organisation will be able to negotiate with the Union, knowing that: 1) under cooperation with the Union, , the ECOWAS and the WAEMU (Western African Economic and Monetary Union) are used to jointly planning aid, the 8 members of the WAEMU all being members of the ECOWAS; 2) the ECOWAS received a brief, in December 1999, of being the only negotiating entity, of which the EU was duly informed. The second difficulty derives from the fact that LACs are possibly not interested in the REPAs. What interest would they have in negotiating agreements that would mark the disappearance of unilateral trade preferences? he wondered, noting that out of the 15 members of the ECOWAS, 7 were LACs.