The Honourable Sir Louis Straker, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Chairman of the Community Council of Ministers
The Honourable Dame Billie Miller, Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados
Other Honourable Ministers
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished Delegates
Staff of the Secretariat
Representatives of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen:

As Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), I welcome you all to the 20th Meeting of the Community Council of Ministers.

Today’s Meeting brings to a climax a series of Meetings of Community Institutions held here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, which began some 10 days ago. During that time the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), as Ministers of Transportation, the Bureau of the Conference of Heads of Government and the Foreign Ministers of CARICOM and Cuba have all gathered here to advance issues critical to the development of the Community. Also, during that time, I had the pleasure of being in one Member State for longer than any other period of this year. And, I must say a profound thanks to the Government and ordinary people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for that experience. By the way, I did my best to follow the Honourable Prime Minister’s injunction to us at last Saturday’s Meeting of the Bureau, that all legitimate pleasures of the islands should be enjoyed, but unfortunately the pressure of the Meetings kept getting in the way.

Today’s final Meeting of the series is certainly one of the most important, given both its Agenda and the place of the Council in the Community’s institutional hierarchy as the second highest decision-making body, and one of only two principal Organs. As directed by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, this Council in the discharge of its responsibilities, receives reports and recommendations emanating from the various Ministerial Councils of the Community, for review prior to their being placed, if necessary, before the highest decision-making body of the Community – the Conference of Heads of Government.

Honourable Ministers, distinguished delegates, in summary between 10 May and today, 30 May, there have been, apart from this Meeting, six meetings of Councils and Bodies of the Community, in addition to yesterday’s Meeting between CARICOM and Cuba at the level of Foreign Ministers and the CARICOM-SICA Ministerial and Summit Meetings on 11 and 12 May in Belize.

Specifically, the Bureau of the Conference met here last Saturday, the Council for Foreign and Community Relations met in Belize, the Council for Trade and Economic Development met twice, one here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the other in Saint Lucia, The Council for National Security and Law Enforcement met in Trinidad and Tobago and today the Legal Affairs Committee (LAC) sits in Jamaica. On Saturday a major Agricultural Donors Conference takes place in Trinidad and Tobago followed next week by a joint meeting of COTED and the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP) and the encounter between the Trade and Finance Ministers and the Regional Private Sector also in Trinidad and Tobago.

I list these Meetings – and exhausting as this may be, it is not an exhaustive list - to illustrate the volume of work and the punishing pace of Community activity at this time. To all of these must be added the feverish preparations being undertaken for the Conference on the Caribbean in Washington D.C., from 19-21 June which is a mere three weeks away. That in itself is a mammoth undertaking.

It is my sincere hope that what all this activity implies - and that is the substantive point - is that the Community is on the move, and that its Members are all seized of the need to produce results for a population which is saying to the integration process it’s time to deliver. They have gotten a taste in a tangible way of genuine togetherness between 1 February and 15 May in the free movement of Community nationals during the Cricket World Cup. The regime instituted by those ten Member States led to relatively hassle free travel among them for the Cricket World Cup. The process has won plaudits from our citizens who saw in the Single Domestic Space the realisation of one of their cherished hopes, however briefly. Even though the team played badly this did not stop the people moving about gladly.

Our mandate, therefore, is to congratulate those who ensured that achievement including our Immigration and Customs Services and now to build on that early harvest from the legacy of the Cricket World Cup by agreeing on and implementing the various measures necessary for completing the Single Market and Economy – and indeed looking beyond. Some elements of that will be before you today in the report from the Council for National Security and Law Enforcement while the CSME issues lie within the reports from the COTED and Legal Affairs Committee.

Honourable Ministers as Members of this Council, Article 13 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas gives you “primary responsibility for the development of Community strategic planning”. In that context, you have shown great interest in the issue of governance and the work of the Technical Working Group established to further the recommendations of the Prime Ministerial Expert Group on Governance. In January, you directed that arrangements be made for dedicated consideration by your Council of this matter. The Heads of Government at their 18th Inter-Sessional Meeting in this very Hall in February took the matter further. Guidance is therefore needed as to whether you still wish to pursue those discussions as a Council, and if so when, as the Community seeks to move the matter forward.

Another critical matter before you today is the consideration of the Provisional Agenda and arrangements for the 28th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government scheduled for Barbados from 1-4 July. It falls to you by virtue of Article 13(4)(e) of the Treaty of Chaguaramas to decide those issues which are ready for the determination of the Conference and to ensure that the arrangements allow for the smooth conduct of that meeting.

Honourable Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is clear that your Agenda is not only lengthy but weighty and that yours is a major responsibility. As may be said by another your yoke is not easy nor your burden light but I am confident that under the inspired and spirited leadership of your Chairman, the Distinguished Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with your full support, the harvest will be plentiful and the Community’s progress assured. It is with that Blessed Assurance that I wish you successful deliberations.

In closing, I must thank the Government and people of St Vincent and the Grenadines for their sterling efforts in handling the arrangements for this extraordinary series of meetings in such an expeditious manner while extending to us the warmest and most fraternal hospitality. For all this I extend to them our most profound thanks.

I thank you.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org