In my capacity as Secretary-General of CARIFORUM, it is a pleasure to join the Honourable Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda and Senator, the Honourable Charlotte Tessa Mangal of Saint Lucia and the CARIFORUM Co-Chair, in welcoming you all to this CARIFORUM-EC Dialogue on Regional Cooperation and Integration.

Let me say at the outset that if anyone had any doubts about the closeness of the relations between the European Union and CARIFORUM, they just have to be here today. This dialogue simple as it may seem, is taking place between representatives of the twenty-seven Member States of the European Union (EU), the European Commission and the sixteen Member States and a number of Associate Members, Overseas Countries and Territories and outer regions of CARIFORUM. The net effect of this dialogue among all these bodies is that well over one-fifth of the world’s community of nations is involved. It is a product of over a quarter of a century of enviable cooperation between our countries as part of the ACP group of states and the countries of Europe comprising the European Union. It has been a mutually beneficial cooperative arrangement.

Honourable Prime Minister, let me at the outset convey our sincere thanks to the Government and people of Antigua and Barbuda for affording us the opportunity to meet in this very beautiful and lush setting. It has infused the cooperative and cordial deliberations of our CARIFORUM preparatory Meeting over the past two days and will no doubt, enhance the atmosphere in which the dialogue with our European Partners will take place today.

Today marks another step in that journey of cooperation between CARIFORUM countries ,the Associate Members and Overseas Countries and Territories, and the European Commission and Member States, paying particular regard to the Roadmap for the Caribbean Regional Indicative Programme under the 10th European Development Fund. Of critical importance is the sharing of a common understanding of the significance of this process and the role which both sides must play. The determination of the road that we must travel is the critical decision that we, the CARIFORUM States must take. The support which you, the European Union lend to our progress must be one which aids us along the way. It must however, never determine the way.

In that regard, it is relevant to recall the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and its central precept which calls for integrating partner countries to exercise effective leadership of their development policies and strategies and to coordinate their development actions. On the other hand, that Declaration critically calls on International Development Partners (IDPs) to base their overall support on partner countries’ development strategies, institutions and procedures. It is a measure of the maturity of CARIFORUM/European Union relationship – of some thirty odd years – that such principles are automatically applied in our cooperation and do not have to be negotiated.

In the context of our discussions today regarding the Roadmap for the 10th EDF, the EU in that spirit of cooperation has provided 165 Million Euros to help finance a Caribbean Regional Indicative Programme over the period 2008 to 2013. That Programme which is to be based on a CARIFORUM Regional Integration and Development strategy and an EU Response Strategy provides significant support for the following:

• Establishment of an OECS Economic Union;
• CARICOM Economic Integration, including the Single Market and Economy;
• Intra-CARIFORUM Cooperation which includes Haiti/Dominican Republic and Dominican Republic/CARICOM Relations;
• Wider Caribbean Cooperation which covers CARIFORUM/Departement Outre Mer, CARIFORUM/Overseas Countries and Territories relations and the EU/Latin American and Caribbean process;
• Implementation of the CARIFORUM/EC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA);
• Investing in Human Capital to provide the skills to support the priority interventions particularly in new and emerging areas, such as Competition Policy and Intellectual Property;
• Some non-focal areas including Crime and Security and Support for Civil Society/Non-State Actors.

Clearly, the 165 Million Euros provided by the EU cannot finance all the required interventions in the identified priority areas, and was never intended to.

The Roadmap seeks to define our policies, principles and strategic interventions for the priority areas set out in the Regional Indicative Programme. It also attempts to prioritize these interventions in light of the limited resources and in the spirit of the Paris Declaration. Further, it attempts to sequence those interventions and to determine how they are to be implemented. Designed and developed in cooperation with our European Partners, we anticipate their positive reaction.

We also look forward to discussing with our European partners such additional steps as we can take to help ensure that our priority needs are met, notwithstanding the limitations of the 10th EDF Regional Indicative Programme. In that regard, we are attracted to the suggestion for the holding of a CARIFORUM Conference in Brussels with International Development Partners. Such a Conference, we hope would be able to help to attract Aid for Trade resources from Development Partners, including the Member States of the European Union. In addition, we will seek to discuss an Infrastructure Fund for the Caribbean to address the Region’s interconnection needs, particularly in the areas of air and sea transport, and Information and Communication Technologies.

In this regard, let me take this opportunity to publicly express CARIFORUM’s appreciation to the Government of the United Kingdom for having recently established at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), a Caribbean Aid for Trade Trust Fund for £5.0 Million to provide support to OECS and CARICOM Economic Integration and for CARIFORUM-EC EPA Implementation.

Prime Minister, Honourable Ministers, today’s Agenda also includes an exchange of views on the very important issues of Climate Change, and on the Global Financial and Economic Crisis and the Caribbean and EU responses. Finally, developments related to commodities of interest to the Caribbean on the EU market, especially Sugar, Bananas, Rum and Rice, cannot be excluded from discussion when you are in a Caribbean context.

The Agenda for our Dialogue clearly indicates the broad scope, depth and intensity of the relationship with our European Partners. As the global political and economic environment changes, as our own regional economy is transformed from a primarily goods to services economy, as our trading relationship becomes increasingly reciprocal, we anticipate that our European Union/CARIFORUM relationship would continue to be based on the principles of mutual respect, trust, common interests and most importantly, mutual benefit.

It is in that frame of mind and against the abovementioned background that we approach today’s dialogue with our European Union Partners in beautiful Antigua and Barbuda, one of the founding nations of the Caribbean integration and cooperation process and thus, of Caribbean future.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org