Gaborone, 10/05/2003 (Agence Europe) -. The 29th session of the ACP-EU joint Council of Ministers took place in Gaborone, Botswana on 6 and 7 May 2004, the first to be held of the 25 Member States of the enlarged EU and the 79 ACP countries (African, Pacific and Caribbean). It marked the launch of negotiations to revise the Cotonou Accord and a Water Facility for ACPs (including the breakdown of its initial EUR 250 million).
At a press conference after the meeting, Pierre Moussa, ACP Co-President, welcomed the Commission's assurances that the accession of the new Member States would not alter the level of funding for ACP states. He said the ACP also want assurances that there would be no changes in development priorities and that the combination of different challenges facing ACPs from the liberalisation of world trade would be taken into account for products like cotton, sugar and bananas. On the review of the Cotonou Accord, he expressed delight that both sides had agreed on a negotiating structure (three levels - ministers, ambassadors and technical experts) and timetable. The ACP do not see the review as a review of the entire agreement, but as an attempt to make the Accord more effective in combating poverty, which should also be the prime motive behind economic partnership agreements, he added. He said that the EPA negotiations went hand in hand with WTO negotiations, which was why ACP solidarity was the spinal cord of ACP strategy for EPAs with the EU and at the WTO, to ensure no commitments were made which they would not be able to keep.
Tom Kitt, European Co-President, speaking on behalf of the Council, welcomed the decision to set up the Water Facility to provide funding for access to clean drinking water and water treatment for millions of people, one of the Millennium Development Targets. He said that Africa was a priority for the Irish Presidency and the Cotonou Accord was the ideal way to express it. We have launched negotiations to made it even more effective. The Action Plan approved by the last Development Council to held countries highly dependent on farm commodities like cotton was one approach. Kitt also hailed progress in negotiating the EFAs, but said further progress had to be made, since they are due to be signed before the end of 2007.
Development Commissioner, Poul Nielson, said the negotiations with the SADC (Southern African Development Community) would kick off on 8 July in Windhoek. Speaking to reporters, he denied media rumours that the Commission was intending to negotiate a collective punitive mechanism in the form of a non-implementation clause for the EPAs that would apply to all countries in a region in the event of a single one of them failing to meet its trade duties. I do not accept this terminology, he said, noting that at this stage, preliminary views were being put forwards by both sides and contributions would be examined in more detail through a negotiated partnership, he explained.
He commented that the discussions about combating AIDS had been very useful, confirming the need to deal with this issue through a pragmatic, realistic approach based on correct information, education and the provision of condoms, as had proved successful in Uganda.
The Commissioner aimed to reassure people about the incorporation of the EDF into the EU budget, which EU Member States are still divided about, telling reporters what he had told the ACPs, namely that this would not have a negative impact on the aid earmarked to ACP states. On the contrary, he said, one shouldn't forget that the EDF is not a structure for ensuring volume, as shown by the conditional billion in the 9th EDF which has only recently become available following an assessment of fund absorption performance. Co-President Pierre Moussa, unconvinced by this, spoke of a level of mistrust or even definite mistrust among ACP countries about the great progress achieved in 2003 in terms of the level of commitments and the release of EDF funding. The ACP states will discuss the matter in more detail at the next Council meeting in Brussels (November 2005).