European Parliament
-6 and 8 February: Committee on Foreign Affairs.
-6 February: Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
-9 February: Committee on development
Council of Ministers
-7/8 February: Coreper II
-7/8 February: Coreper I
European Commission
- 7 February: Conference on Energy Roadmap 2050
ACP Group
-9 February: Committee of ACP ambassadors
Special date
-7 February: 20th anniversary of the signing of the Maastricht Treaty

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.

We recently met with Laurent de Boeck, director of the ACP Observatory on Migration, an initiative of the ACP Group of States.  In particular, he delved deep into the Rabat process and explained to us the main 2012-2014 strategy challenges and stressed the positive effects of good management of migration policy, and the contribution to poverty reduction thereof.

The next Brussels Development Briefing will take place on the 22 February 2012 and will be organised in partnership with the African Union Commission, the European Commission (DG DEVCO) the ACP Secretariat, Concord and various media partners.
Pastoralism will be at the core of our next Brussels Briefing. We will discuss the main challenges affecting the pastoralists, especially in the ACP countries, and the opportunities provided by existing continental and regional policy frameworks and processes. It will then focus on sharing good practices and experiences from the field across regions. We will also identify what urgent and concrete policy actions need to be in place to increase support pastoralism.
The Briefing will be fully webstreamed in English and French. To see the programme (revised) to register for the Briefing and to follow the webstream on22 February (from 8h30 a.m. to13.00 p.m. CET) please visit brusselsbriefings.

The Council recently adopted conclusions on a special report from the European Court of Auditors, entitled "Is agri-environment support well designed and managed?". The Court acknowledges that significant progress has been made since the introduction of agrienvironment payments. Though the Council takes note of the recommendations, it points out  that the actual environmental benefits of these measures can be seen only after a certain period of time following their implementation.

As 2012 global economic prospects seem pessimistic, Dr. Peter Phillips, the Jamaican Finance Minister, has recently stressed that the country must find ways to boost its economy.  Following the IMF's negative growth outlook, he stressed demand for Jamaican exports may decrease and suggested “to redouble […] efforts to export more, to seek new markets, particularly in areas that are not as affected greatly by the recession […] to try and source investment funds from other places that are not going to be as affected by the recession as the United States and Europe”.