Main events for the Week: 15/12/2014 – 21/12/2014
European Parliament (Strasbourg)
17 December: Committee on International Trade
Council of the EU
15 December: Foreign Affairs Council – briefing by EU Ebola coordinator
15-16 December: Agriculture and Fisheries Council
16 December: General Affairs Council
17 December: Environment Council
18-19 December: European Council
Other
16-19 December: Sahel and West Africa week
17-18 December: 30th Annual meeting of the food crisis prevention network
18 December: International Migrants Day
The CTA Brussels Weblog has been the portal of EU-ACP policy news, providing articles on several different issues: ACP-EU trade, rural development, aid effectiveness, environment, regional fisheries, food security, food policy, agriculture, development, climate change and energy. In addition to this news service, CTA weblog will also provide ACP regional trade news. The main stories for the week are featured in our newsletter and all stories can be found in our 'Regional Trade' archive.
Ambassador Dr. Patrick I. Gomes of Guyana has been appointed as the new Secretary General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States. Dr. Gomes’ appointment took place today during the 100th session of the ACP Council of Ministers in Brussels, making him the ninth Secretary General since the inception of the organisation in 1975. “I accept with great honour this appointment on behalf of Guyana, the Caribbean and the entire ACP family. I do so with much modesty and strong commitment to serve the ACP Group to the best of my ability and to tirelessly achieve the objectives of the Georgetown Agreement, and to ensure tangible benfits to the people of our member states,” he said in his acceptance speech. “Our solidarity and unity must take more account of the dynamic changes in our regions and ensure complementarity and coherence… With a promise of strategic and focused action, let us together rejuvenate, reposition and reinvent this unique and great organisation, the ACP Group of States.”
Barbados is getting some help in developing its Black Belly sheep industry and putting its herbs, spices and condiments business on a better commercial scale. The assistance is coming through an Agriculture Policy Programme (APP) financed under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF), which is the main instrument for European Union aid for development cooperation with the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of countries. During the launch of the Barbados part of the region-wide programme, project spokeswoman Ena Harvey of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture said Barbados would be helped to significantly increase its Black Belly sheep population. She also said emphasis would be placed on the genetic side, on registration and management of the stock. Under the EDF, about $21.3 million will be available for projects in 15 regional countries over four years.
The EU has strongly supported the accession of the Seychelles and is very pleased to welcome our partner in the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific group as a new member of the WTO family,' said EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. 'This accession and the queue of 22 countries that want to join continue to highlight the indispensable value of multilateralism.' After 19 years of multilateral negotiations, the accession process was given a boost when on 23 October 2013 the EU and the Seychelles concluded their bilateral market access negotiations on the island state's WTO accession. Remaining bilateral negotiations with other trading partners and the multilateral work in a WTO working party subsequently speeded up.