GOVERNMENT OF BARBADOS ADDRESS BY THE RT. HON. OWEN ARTHUR PRIME MINISTER OF BARBADOS AT THE OPENING OF THE 12 TH ACP-EU JOINT PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY SHERBOURNE CONFERENCE CENTRE NOVEMBER 20, 2006 2 Your Excellency Sir Clifford Husbands, Governor General Members of Cabinet Co-Presidents of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly President of the Council of the European Union European Union Commissioner for Development & Humanitarian Assistance Members of ACP Parliaments and Members of the European Parliament Without even the slightest tinge of apology to anyone I find it necessary to begin by declaring that Barbados is honoured that you have chosen our country to be the venue for the 12 th Session of your ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. You will find our country to be in a more festive mood than normal as we prepare to celebrate our 40 th Anniversary of Independence. Senior Minister Miller would have, I believe, already indicated to you that one of the requirements of your participation in this convocation is that you must also participate to the full, and as appropriate, in Barbados’ coming of age celebrations. That, I too, now require and command of you. With no intention to be immodest, I must submit to you that it would be difficult for the ACP or the European Union to choose a place that is more qualified than Barbados in the precepts and practices of parliamentary governance and democracy as a location to hold a Parliamentary Assembly. 3 Barbados has the second oldest Parliament in the Commonwealth - a Parliament of some 367 years standing and continuous existence. And although it has not always been the people’s Parliament in the best democratic sense, it has always asserted its claim to Parliamentary integrity in a manner that it would be difficult not to admire. A famous case occurred as early as 1651 when a proclamation constituting a Declaration of Independence was passed by the Council and Assembly - a mere 120 years before the USA Declaration- condemning the actions of the House of Commons of England as being against the freedom and safety of the island, and declaring furthermore that Barbados should not be bound by the measures of a Parliament to which it could send no representatives. The statement issued in support of the Declaration, though being the words of dissident colonial elites, could be used as the mantra of any Parliament: “We will not alienate ourselves from our heroic virtues to prostitute our freedom and privileges to which we were born to the will and opinion of any one; neither do we think our number so contemptible nor our resolution so weak to be forced or persuaded to so ignoble a submission”. That was the Barbados Parliament of 1651. You meet today as a Joint Assembly. Of more relevance to your immediate purposes must be the fact that the Barbadian Parliament of 2006 perhaps, brought a refreshingly new definition to the concept 4 of a Joint Assembly on the occasion that the Leader of the Opposition made our democracy even more splendid and unique by choosing to accept an appointment to my Cabinet. Barbados enjoys a long tradition of parliamentary democracy, born in our colonial past and in part reflecting the values and systems of that period. An independent Barbados continued to build on that parliamentary tradition, adapting it to the needs of a newly independent nation. The task, however is not complete. Perhaps the most critical task before us now is to make our system of governance and our institutions fully reflective of an independent nation with a strong parliamentary heritage. On that enterprise we are now engaged. We have learnt during the initial stages of development of this very young nation that independence does not signify isolation or unilateralism. Independence should signify the enjoyment of sovereignty best used in the pursuit of a destiny that is all bound with our interdependence with others. It is this yearning to promote interdependence that makes our relationship through the ACP-EU partnership so special. The evolution of the ACP-EU relationship over the past forty-three years is a remarkable achievement. It has progressed from a limited agreement covering some aspects of European-African relations to become the most comprehensive North-South cooperation partnership. Along the way, the partnership has been able to evolve by taking into account the expansion of the European Community 5 and the ACP Group, within the context of international developments, such as decolonisation, the end of the cold war, and the effects of globalisation. Our present arrangements are therefore the product of an imposing history. The signing of the first Lome Convention in 1975 represented a clear progression from the two Yaounde Conventions, the first of which was signed in 1963 and involved only eighteen Associated African States and Madagascar together with the original six members of the European Community. Lome not only extended Yaounde from being a purely African aid programme into a global economic cooperation agreement involving seventy African Caribbean and Pacific Member States and fifteen European countries, but it also brought a new dimension to North-South cooperation by introducing a more holistic approach, encompassing both trade and aid. Similarly, after four Lome Conventions, the Cotonou Agreement with its provisions for new trade arrangements, the Economic Partnership Agreements, represents a major transformation. The partnership agreement now links seventy- nine ACP and twenty-five - soon to be twenty-seven - EU countries. Furthermore, EPAs are intended to move the ACP-EU relationship from one based on a preferential one-way trade regime to one which would be reciprocal and WTO compatible. The Cotonou Agreement is noteworthy because it introduced a number of innovations to the ACP-EU partnership agreement. The political dimension of the 6 relationship has been strengthened and is now a key element of the agreement. As a consequence respect for human rights, democratic principles, the rule of law and good governance are all subjects for regular political dialogue between the two sides. The inclusion of civil society, the private sector and other non-state actors in areas which were previously the exclusive jurisdiction of governments is another new feature of Cotonou. In the area of financial cooperation, the programming system has been modified in an effort to increase the utilisation rate of EDF resources. However, the most far reaching innovation associated with the Cotonou Agreement is the provision for the negotiation of new WTO-compatible trading arrangements between ACP regional groupings and the European Unio. Twenty- five years of ACP-EU trade and economic cooperation, under successive Lome Conventions, were built on the principles of preferential market access and non- reciprocity for ACP products entering the EU market. They rested on the solidarity of the ACP as a group in search for or and support of a common development ambition. Indeed, the unity and solidarity of the ACP Group had been a major factor in the negotiation of these Conventions and of the Cotonou Agreements which began as scheduled, in September 2002, presents a daunting task to the ACP. I have noted from your programme that on Wednesday afternoon you will consider, as an urgent topic, “The review of the Economic Partnership Agreements”. This morning I will touch on two EPA related issues, which affect 7 all ACP regions and which will define the nature of the future relationship between ACP countries and the European Union. First, I will speak to the treatment of regional integration within the context of the EPA with some reference to the Caribbean’s efforts, particularly in the economic sphere as it relates to the Caribbean Single Market and Economy for which I have lead responsibility within our regional arrangements. Secondly, I will address the development dimension of the EPAs, something which threatens to derail the entire negotiating process. In the Caribbean, we very much admire the process of regional integration that Europe has been able to undertake, and we acknowledge that it has many positive elements which can serve as very useful models in our own regional integration. Indeed, we are especially attracted to the elements aimed at ensuring social cohesion and the perspective that economic integration should be the tide which lifts all boats. Consequently, we have recognised the need for social and economic cohesion within our regional integration grouping, and have committed ourselves to pay urgent attention to addressing this need. The most tangible expression of this is the recent creation of a Regional Development Fund to enable our LDC’s to offset any disadvantages from being part of a Single market and Economy. In addressing the Caribbean Business Forum in London in June 2005, I pointed out that the CSME will only succeed, if the programme of Special and Differential Treatment for our lesser developed members, as outlined in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, is urgently implemented. I also said that we must be especially 8 sensitive to the fact that the distribution of costs and benefits, derived from the intensification of market integration, will not automatically become equitable and that specific steps would have to be taken to ensure some balance is achieved. We do not wish our integrated economy in the Caribbean to be a permanent coalition of unequals. We equally do not wish to engage in any arrangements with entities outside our region that constitute themselves as coalitions of unequals. While acknowledging that economic dislocation as a result of regional integration is a phenomenon which cannot entirely be prevented or avoided, we believe that it can and should be mitigated. In this regard, we have concluded that compensatory and corrective mechanisms should constitute a necessary and prominent feature of all discussions on the creation of a single economic space within our region.