European Council (Brussels):
-21 February: EU Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting
-21 February: Agriculture and Fisheries Council
-21 February: General Affairs Council
-22 February: EU Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers meet
-22 February: Informal meeting of EU ministers for development cooperation
-23 February: Coreper II, Coreper I
European Commission (Brussels):
-23 February: Intra- ACP academic mobility info session
ACP Secretary (Brussels):
-21 February: Subcommittee on Sustainable Development
-22/23 February: Steering Committee ACP-EU Natural disasters facility
-24 February: Committee of Ambassadors
For more information please consult the calendar on our webpage http://brussels.cta.int.
Our guest of the week is Dr. Hans Herren, President of the Millenium Institute and co-chair of the IAASTD. We spoke to him in the margin of a panel debate on "Geopolitics of Food" that the CTA organized in cooperation with DG DEVCO, Concord and the ACP Secretariat on February 2nd in Brussels.
The Council adopted a recommendation to the European Parliament on the discharge to be given to the Commission in respect of the implementation of operations under the 8th, 9th and 10th European development funds for the financial year 2009 (5469/11, 5472/11, 5473/11). It also took note of comments of the Council's ACP working group on the Court of Auditors annual report on those operations (6003/11), as well as a statement on the Court's statement of assurance for the same transactions (6053/11).
The 3067th Council meeting on Economic and Financial Affairs held in Brussels on 14 February 2011 approved the conclusion of an interim economic partnership agreement with the Pacific states, i.e. Papua New Guinea and the Fiji Islands (5536/11 + COR1). Negotiations on the interim agreement were finalised in November 2007. The European Parliament gave its consent on 19 January 2011 to the conclusion of the agreement. The text of the agreement is set out in 5558/2/09 REV 2.
The European Union has extended by one year sanctions against 163 individuals and 31 businesses involved in human-rights abuses and anti-democratic activities in Zimbabwe. At the same time, the EU lifted asset freezes and travel bans against 35 people linked to the regime of President Robert Mugabe.