European Parliament
-17/20 April: EP Plenary Session (Strasbourg)
European Commission
-16 April: EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit (Brussels)
Council of Ministers
-18 April: COREPER I
-18/19 April: COREPER II
-18/20 April : Informal meeting of Ministers for Energy and Environment (TTE and ENVI)
ACP Group
-16 April: Management meeting
-17 April: Bureau of the Committee of Ambassadors
-19/20 April: 3rd meeting of the ACP-EU Natural Disaster Facilities

You can also read our newspaper “CTA Brussels Daily” (fed by our Twitter account), follow our new Facebook group CTABrussels and our Twitter account CTABrussels to receive up-to-date information on EU-ACP events.

During the last Brussels Briefing, entitled ‘Small island economies: from vulnerabilities to opportunities’, we met Pierre Encontre, Chief of Special Programmes, Division for Africa, Least Developed countries and Special Programmes, UNCTAD. He spoke to us about the key discussions of the UNCTAD Expert Group that met in December 2011, and which focused on the Small Island Developing States (SIDS).  He points to a specific policy for this group as the main course of action to address vulnerabilities “more effectively”.

Last week, the Brussels development Briefing on Small Island economies was held with great success. As a follow-up, the CTA and its partners, and in collaboration with the Mauritius Government, are organising the 7th Regional Development Briefing. The event, which  will be held in Mauritius on 23-24th April 2012, will gather representatives from the Pacific, the Caribbean and Africa to exchange views and identify what urgent and concrete policy actions of common interest need to be in place.

With the aim of promoting Caribbean and European researchers' mobility, as well as encouraging contacts between research institutions for joint participation in the Seventh Framework Programme, EUCARINET, ("Fostering EU‐Caribbean Research and Innovation Networks") has recently launched a call for proposals for its programme Travel Grant Scheme.

Following an informal deal reached by Parliament’s negotiating team, and the Council’s Danish Presidency, the European Agency for Maritime Safety (EMSA) may get new powers to step up cooperation against piracy, prevent maritime pollution, improve training for seafarers and help establish an EU maritime space without barriers.