Brazzaville, 01/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - Speaking in front of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, Commissioner Poul Nielson declared that "the Commission believes that Cuba should be accepted as a member of the Cotonou Agreement". Among the Development Commissioner's arguments is the fact that the principles and mechanisms contained in the ACP-EU partnership agreement are useful for political dialogue and dialogue on respect for human rights. "Cuba accepts the Cotonou acquis and I believe that the Member States would be well advised to take this into account", said Mr Nielson, indicating that he would ask the Council of Ministers to accept Cuba's accession. The Commissioner, who has just taken part in the inauguration of the new Commission delegation to Havana, also stated that the delegation would 1) manage a humanitarian aid envelope of 20 million euros, 2) monitor the human rights situation and ensure "regular and intensive" political dialogue, 3) play an active part in trade and investment matters. The Commissioner answered a question from French Socialist Marie-Arlette Carlotti.
In the long statement that he had read out earlier, the Commissioner had welcomed the entry into force, that same day, of the Cotonou Agreement. "12.5 million euros are available as of today", said Mr Nielson, indicating that it will be possible to allocate the credits of the 9th EDF very quickly. He reiterated that a large proportion of these resources would be given over to transport (32.5%) and social infrastructure and services (31%).
"We will continue to work on reducing the burden of debt of ACP countries and fighting HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria", said Mr Nielson, announcing that the Commission would shortly be putting forward proposals for using the 9th EDF reserves for health and debt reduction under the PPTE initiative. The Commissioner also raised the more delicate issue of the mid-term review to take place in 2004, which "could lead to a revision of strategy and of financial allocations".
Under this framework, he stressed, the highest-performing ACP States in terms of use of EDF funds could see their allocation increased, whereas that of the worse-performing States would be reduced. In justification of this revision of the financial envelopes for the ACP, the Commissioner summed up the balances of the 6th, 7th and 8th EDF: At the end of 2002, three billion euros allocated to ACP countries had not been committed, 8 billion had been committed but not spent, in other words, a total of 11 billion euros unused. Having pointed out that the Commission recently committed itself to EDF budgetisation (an old request of the Parliament: Ed), the Commissioner expressed his hopes that the future economic partnership agreements would be "genuine instruments at the service of development". He concluded on a note of optimism, saying that the arrival of two new ACP partners (referring to the applications by Cuba and East Timor) and of ten new Member States will give "new perspectives and experiences to share".