The second session of the Assembly of Caribbean Community Parliamentarians (ACCP) will convene in Grenada on October 14, 1999.
The two day-session will bring together parliamentarians from the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) 15 Member States as well as the three Associate Member States to discuss matters relevant to the strengthening of the regional integration movement. Each Member State of CARICOM is allowed a maximum of four representatives while Associate Members are allowed two. It is expected that Sir Curtis Strachan, Speaker of the Grenada House of Representatives will preside over the session in keeping with the Agreement establishing the ACCP.
The ACCP, the brainchild of former Barbados Prime Minister Mr Erskine Sandiford, is a deliberative body which comprises parliamentarians from both sides of the floor. It presents a unique opportunity for them to air their views on issues affecting the Region. Purely domestic matters will not be allowed in the session under the Agreement establishing the Assembly. An order paper will be issued shortly.
The first session of the parliament was held on May 27, 1996 in Barbados and when that session convened, the ACCP became the fourth Regional Parliament in the hemisphere. The others are the Andean Parliament, the Central American Parliament and the Latin American Parliament which is the oldest of the four having first convened in 1965. The European Parliament is the oldest regional Parliament in the world having started in 1952.
This year’s session comes in the wake of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting in Trinidad and Tobago in September and will coincide with the ACP-EU Joint Assembly scheduled for October 11-15 in the Bahamas.
It also follows the deliberation of a Youth ACCP which was held in The Bahamas in September 1998 as part of the 25th Anniversary celebrations of the Caribbean Community. The October meeting comes less than two weeks before the Seventh Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community scheduled for Trinidad and Tobago on October 26-27.
