Brussels, 28/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - According to the European Commission, Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy obtained assurances in Ghana that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will start negotiations with the Union on an economic partnership agreement next September (see EUROPE of 26 April p.9).
It is in September that the initial phase of negotiations with the whole of the ACP group is due to finish, and the phase of negotiations with those ACP regional entities which believe they are ready for these negotiations, is due to begin.
In a press release, Pascal Lamy, speaking from Accra, stated that "this is a very important step forward in the EU/ACP common project of making trade contribute to development. This is a stepping stone in establishing a partnership between the EU and this region. It is also a clear sign of the EU continuous commitment to the integration of this region, thus contributing to the stability and prosperity of Western Africa".
However, according to the spokesperson of the ACP group, many uncertainties remain. "At this stage, ECOWAS has only a vague mandate from the States of the region, which refers only to trade issues. It goes without saying that west Africa feels that this body is in the best position to do this, but the ACP group has had no official notification to this end from the governments of Africa. It is up to the States to tell us who will negotiate on their behalf. The Secretariat of the ACP group is simply taking note of this information, as per the agreed timetable", he declared.
Furthermore, according to a diplomatic ACP source, the differences which continue to subsist between the European Union and the ACO group, on both the conclusion of the initial phase of negotiations and the content of the EPAs, and the lack of progress in discussions, has led to the ACP's grave misgivings on the likelihood of starting the second phase in September.
The ACP expressed these misgivings at the last meeting of the ACP/EU Committee of Ambassadors (11 April, Brussels). "The ACP want a minimum of firm commitments at "all ACP" level before it enters regional-level talks. The framework for the second phase has not yet been defined. Economic partnership agreements should be instruments for development, but each time we try to discuss development, or agriculture as a sub-topic of development, the Europeans refuse to tackle this specific subject", stated the same source.
According to the ACP group's spokesperson, the group Secretariat will take the opportunity at the next ACP meetings (the Council of Ministers of 15 and 16 May, preceded by the meeting of national and regional co-ordinators on 10 and 11 May) to declare that the conditions for negotiations to begin in September have not been met.
Established in 1975, ECOWAS is a group of fifteen countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinee Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, plus Cabo Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinee, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone). The eight former countries also belong to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).