Brussels, 27/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The kick-off of trade talks between the Union and 76 of the ACP group member countries was given on Friday in Brussels during a solemn ceremony jointly chaired by Carsten Stauer, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for Denmark (which presides the Union's Council) and Jaya Krishna Cuttaree, Minister for Industry and International Trade of the Republic of Mauritius (that presides the ACP Council). During the ceremony, attended by Cuban Minister Ricardo Carbrisas as a special guest, there was clear unanimity in the determination to make the economic partnership agreements (EPA), to be negotiated by end 2007, development instruments geared to eradicating poverty and harmoniously including ACP countries in the global economy, in conformity with the aims of the Cotonou Agreement. Making these agreements simple levers for liberalising trade seemed to be ruled out, both by the ACP States and by Europeans. Convinced of the need to commit themselves to a new road for concluding, between the Union and regional integration ACP countries or regions, trade agreements compatible with the WTO rules, both parties seemed equally concerned about not sacrificing the achievements of the ACP/EU partnership, hailed unanimously as a single model of its kind in North South relations. On the contrary, they wished to strengthen it. And yet, behind the apparent convergence over aims, differences of approach were obvious in the tone of the speeches regarding the real nature of EPAs, the suitability of beginning negotiations with regional ACP entities that are ready as soon as possible, and about improving adjustment of WTO rules to the specific features of countries that are among the poorest (improved special and differentiated treatment) in order to grant them longer transition periods in the negotiation of regional free trade agreements. These already perceptible differences show the extent of work that awaits negotiators in order to achieve a result that lives up to the proclaimed objective. An opening session of negotiation, organised in the wake of opening speeches, should allow both parties to close the gap between their different points of view on the organisation of these negotiations, namely: their structure and the timetable for working sessions, as well as the detailed calendar of the first phase that has just begun with the whole of the ACP group for dealing with horizontal issues.