BRUSSELS, 12 December 2014 -- The African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Council of Ministers met in Brussels from 9-12 December 2014 in its 100th Session since the inception of the ACP Group of States as an international organization in 1975, as enshrined in the Georgetown Agreement.
Honourable Minister Alva R. Baptiste, Minister of External Affairs, International Trade and Civil Aviation of Saint Lucia, who attended the week of Ministerial meetings, raised the flag of Saint Lucia, as well as the Eastern Caribbean States and the wider Small Island Developing States (SIDS) grouping during the high level meeting. Minister Baptiste spoke compellingly to the necessity of adopting a sustainable approach to development cooperation under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) that responds to the geopolitical reality of SIDS. “The sustainable development of SIDS should not be rolled back because of the spectre of graduation that has been incorporated in EU development financing,” he argued. “It is therefore essential that the EU continues to support a mature relationship with ACP countries through honouring its commitments to provide additional support under the Banana Accompanying Measures (BAMs) as promised by the former EU Trade Commissioner.”
In contributing to the wider debate on the Future of the ACP Group as it navigates a challenging global environment, Minister Baptiste challenged ACP Ministers to “take courage as the thrill of flying is always preceded by the fear of falling.” He further reflected, “The changed architecture in the EU pushes the Group beyond its comfort zone in terms of the way they relate to each other. The ACP Group should not face this change with dread and confusion, because we have the competence to proffer solutions collectively to the problems that threaten us.”
H.E. Dr. Len Ishmael, Ambassador for the Eastern Caribbean States in Brussels, lauded the ACP Group for its political support provided to SIDS through its declaration on SIDS at the eponymous September Conference in Samoa, a first since the international agenda was seized of the SIDS issues 20 years ago. Dr. Ishmael and her Brussels team have carried the SIDS banner in Brussels and succeeded in a number of initiatives including putting SIDS on the Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) agenda for the first time, in November 2014, and influencing the creation of a SIDS Forum in the proposed revamped ACP architecture in the upcoming period 2015-2020.
In discussions on the status of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA), Dr. Len Ishmael pointed to the recently held 5-year review of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA, and the failure to unlock its development promise for the micro-States of the Eastern Caribbean who had looked to the Agreement to facilitate Mode 4 access of service providers and those involved in creative industries to EU markets. To date, there has been no benefit to the Eastern Caribbean from this modality. The EPA also emphasized the importance of integration within the region. Dr. Ishmael pointed to the deeper integration which already exists among Eastern Caribbean Member States, as well as the closer association now in place between the ECS and Members of the European Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) and Overseas Regions (ORs), “representing constructive steps taken by the region in pursuit of its own development, in contrast to the poor results coming from the EPA, given that its overall emphasis was in support of the development of the region.”
This landmark meeting of ACP Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Trade was symbolical as Ministers selected a new Secretary General in the person of H.E. Dr. Patrick I. Gomes from the Caribbean country of Guyana, to help chart a new course for the organization in a crucial epoch of global and political change. In order to remain geopolitically relevant, the ACP Group will need to effectuate a paradigm shift, from an EU-focused organization to a formidable multilateral forum of developing counties, focused on promoting sustainable, resilient and creative economies, justice and human security for its peoples, in the context of global partnerships. The upcoming five years are therefore critical for the repositioning of this transcontinental organization of 79 Member States from the developing world as they determine the tenor of their new breed of partnerships with the EU, the industrialized North and the rest of the emerging world.
The Embassy of the Eastern Caribbean States in Brussels represents the Commonwealth of Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
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