(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will be in Europe this week attending two Summit Meetings.
Seven of the leaders accompanied by Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, His Excellency Edwin Carrington, will attend the Third CARICOM-Spain Summit in Madrid, Spain, on 10-11 May and the Fourth European Union (EU) – Latin American Caribbean (LAC) Summit in Vienna, Austria, on 12-13 May.
Heads of Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago are expected to be in Madrid for the Summit with Spain. Their colleagues from Guyana and Suriname are expected to join them for the EU-LAC Summit in Vienna. The Foreign Ministers of The Bahamas, Grenada and Jamaica will represent their countries at both meetings.
The CARICOM and Spanish leaders will discuss institutionalisation of future meetings and possible common actions in international fora. Economic cooperation and technical assistance will also be important items on the agenda. This could include support for CARICOM’s efforts to establish and begin operations of the regional Development Fund, a key element of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy; co-operation with the Caribbean Development Bank and the future participation of the European Investment Bank and Special Fund for Development; the current situation of negotiations on an Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU; and support programmes for helping CARICOM to restructure its economies affected by the phasing out of preferences affecting the banana and sugar sectors.
CARICOM and Spain concluded an Agreement on Scientific and Technical Cooperation in 1999, the year of the First Summit. The provisions of this Agreement have been carried out largely through collaboration with the AECI–Spanish International Cooperation Agency.
There will also be discussion on CARICOM participation in EXPO ZARAGOZA 2008.
The Fourth EU/LAC Summit will be preceded by the meeting of officials on 9-10 May 2006 and the EU/LAC Foreign Ministers Meeting on 11 May 2006. An EU/LAC Business Summit takes place in Vienna on 11-13 May 2006.
This Summit is taking place shortly after the publication by the EU of a number of “EC Communications” or policy documents including “An EU-Caribbean Partnership for Growth, Stability and Development.” Two themes have been suggested by the EU for the meeting of Foreign Ministers: Shared Challenges in the economic and social area: energy, environment and sustainable development; and Shared Challenges in the political area: terrorism, drugs, UN Peace Building Commission, International Criminal Court and the work of the UN Human Rights Council.
The Business Summit brings together Chief Executive Officers from both Regions. In its three plenary sessions and four broad panel topics, sixteen of the most important business sectors will be analysed. Bertha M Parle, President of the Caribbean Hotel Association, will be speaking at the Summit.
Among items on the agenda for the Summit are: Democracy and Human Rights; Strengthening the multilateral approach to fostering peace, stability and respect for international law; Terrorism; Drugs and Organised Crime; Environment (including disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness); and Energy.
Also down for discussion are Association Agreements; regional integration; trade; connectivity (investment, infrastructure and information society); the fight against poverty, inequality and exclusion; development co-operation and international financing for development; migration; and knowledge sharing and human capacity building: higher education, research, science and technology, culture.
Participation in these Summits is a key aspect of CARICOM’s continuing efforts to strengthen and deepen its economic and political relations with its external partners.
