Press release 88/2007
(20 April 2007)

Your Excellency, Ambassador Geert Heikens, Head of the European Commission Delegation in Guyana
Your Excellency, Mr. Fraser Wheeler, British High Commissioner
Deputy Secretary-General, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite
Assistant Secretaries-General
Representatives of the European Commission Delegation
Representative of the Embassy of Suriname
Other Members of Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat
Representatives of the Media

As Secretary-General of both the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Caribbean Forum of ACP States (CARIFORUM), I take special pleasure in welcoming you all today to this signing ceremony of the European Union-CARIFORUM Contribution Agreement for the Caribbean Integration Support Programme under the 9th European Development Fund.

I extend particular welcome to you Ambassador Heikens, both to Guyana and to the CARICOM Secretariat within which the CARIFORUM Function, which incorporates the participation of the Dominican Republic, is being discharged. This is indeed an auspicious occasion, one of many firsts. This is your first visit to the Secretariat, Excellency, and your first act here will be join me in signing this very important Contribution Agreement - the first of its kind to be signed between the European Commission and the CARICOM Secretariat within the CARIFORUM-ACP relationship, that has grown from strength to strength over the years.

The signing of this Agreement, is the first of its kind also as it represents a shift from the traditional mechanism of delivery of development support through project assistance to delivery by way of budgetary support. This achievement and all that it entails represents, without a doubt, a reaffirmation of the importance of the CARIFORUM-European Union relationship, our joint desire to deepen and widen that relationship and for it to redound to the benefit of the people of the Caribbean region

This special event is the culmination of unstinting effort on the part of representatives of the European Commission, both here in Guyana and in Brussels and by my own staff. In this connection, I wish to acknowledge the particular contribution of your predecessor, Excellency, Ambassador Per Eklund.

In January of this year, my first official act was to travel to Brussels to sign, together with His Excellency Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, a Financing Agreement for a Caribbean Integration Support Programme valued at 40.5 million euros - approximately US$52.6 million.

On that occasion, I remarked that signature of the Financing Agreement demonstrated what the European Commission and the Caribbean could achieve ‘when we set our collective minds to a given task’. I further indicated that in ‘one agreement, we were able to support the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), provide assistance for an OECS presence at the WTO in Geneva, enhance CARIFORUM participation in the ongoing EPA negotiations, provide for improved and intensified activities in economic statistics, information and communication technology (ICT), translation and information services and provide the CARICOM Secretariat with institutional support to improve its efficiencies, as well as to take on the CARIFORUM technical functions.’

Today, in signing this Contribution Agreement, we are moving from the general framework of a financing agreement for the provision of resources to the more pragmatic, executing agreement, which gives effect to a work programme and releases the financial resources with which to implement that agreed work programme.

The new approach represented by this Agreement demonstrates the growing maturity in the Caribbean– European Union relationship, placing as it does more responsibility on the receiving partner for the management of European Development Fund resources. The basic tenet of the Contribution Agreement is that – unlike previous arrangements - the rules, regulations and procedures to be used to govern implementation of activities specified in the Agreement, are generally those of the Implementing Agency and not the Granting Agency. Therefore, for the Agreement which we are signing today, it is the CARICOM Secretariat’s rules that will apply in the area of recruitment of staff. While EDF rules will apply in other areas, they will do so without the customary necessity of obtaining prior approval. Over the duration of the Agreement, we will gradually move towards use of CARICOM Secretariat rules, regulations and procedures to govern all aspects of implementation.

I take special pride in saying that this mechanism for implementation, connotes recognition by the European Commission of the CARICOM Secretariat as a reliable partner in the delivery and implementation of development finance assistance to the Region. I have no doubt that this journey, upon which the CARICOM Secretariat and the European Commission is embarking, will prove successful and that the Contribution Agreement will evolve into the major vehicle for regional development finance cooperation between the Caribbean and the European Community. Such a development will improve aid delivery and effectiveness, deepen the sense of ownership of aid funded activities and yield an increased impact of the aid being delivered.

The Contribution Agreement which we are signing today is valued at 36 million euros, or approximately US$46.8 million. The work programme for the first year of the Agreement is valued at more than 16 million euros or about US$21.0 million. The budget of the work programme provides for staff, capacity building, technical assistance, meetings/seminars and workshops, equipment and supplies and training. The Contribution Agreement also provides for action to be taken to improve and upgrade, where necessary, the internal rules, regulations and procedures of the CARICOM Secretariat.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no doubt therefore that today’s signing of the Contribution Agreement between the CARICOM Secretariat and the European Commission represents a qualitative change in European Union-CARIFORUM relations. I am convinced that this Contribution Agreement brings us closer to the partnership and joint management objectives of the Cotonou Agreement, and the earlier Lomé Conventions, to which we all ascribe. It is an extremely welcome development and a seminal moment in our relationship. We at the CARICOM Secretariat, with the help of our European Commission colleagues, will do all that we can to make implementation of the contribution agreement a success and so, remain true to the aims and aspirations of the founding fathers of our cooperation.

It is my hope that the signing of this Contribution Agreement today will be the first of many others to come.

I thank you.