The 13th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly took place in Wiesbaden (Germany) from 23 to 28 June 2007

The Formal opening took place on Monday, 25 June 2007, with the participation of Mr Horst Köhler, President of the Federal Republic of Germany and Mr Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament.

The Assembly adopted resolutions based on reports drawn up by the Standing Committees on
- Migration of Skilled Workers and its Effect on National Development (co-rapporteurs: Sharon Hay Webster ( Jamaica) and Luisa Morgantini)
- Poverty reduction for small farmers in ACP countries – in particular in the fruit, vegetable and flowers sectors (co-rapporteurs: Kilontsi Mporogomyi (Tanzania) and Carl Schlyter)
- Good governance, transparency and accountability in relation with the exploitation of natural resources in ACP countries (co-rapporteurs: Michael Gahler and Evelyne B. Cheron (Haiti))

The Assembly adopted an urgent resolution on the situation in Darfur.

As usual, the Assembly hear the European Commission and the ACP-EU Council and held debates with both Institutions. Furthermore, Mrs Gertrude Mongella, President of the Pan African Parliament, addressed the Assembly. Her intervention was followed by a debate.

Other debates were held on the Economic Partnership Agreements, the situation of West Africa and CITES.

The next Joint Parliamentary Assembly will take place in Kigali, Rwanda from 19 to 22 November 2007.

Visit of the Co-presidents to West-Africa

Following a decision of the JPA Bureau, a fact-finding mission was sent to Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana from 10 to 15 April 2007. The delegation was led by Glenys Kinnock and René Radembino-Coniquet.

In Senegal the delegation met various actors from the political field, including the recently re-elected President of the Republic Abdoulaye Wade. President Wade attaches much importance to big infrastructural projects to boost the economy, but it is unlikely that this will be sufficient to meet the MDGs for health and education. In Senegal, the delegation also visited an association of mothers and relatives of migrants who died at sea on their way to Europe. This mission was a complement to the previous JPA mission which went to Malta and Spain.

The visit to Côte d'Ivoire was dominated by the recent " Ouagadougou agreement" signed between President Laurent Gbagbo and his rival from the Forces Nouvelles Guillaume Soro, under the auspices of Blaise Compaoré, President of Burkina and acting President of ECOWAS. The agreement foresees a dismantlement of the buffer zone and a re-unification of the country. Both Gbagbo and Soro assured the delegation of their full sincerity for peace. While the international community supports the agreement and will withdraw the biggest part of the troops, many questions remain open: the establishment of the electoral list (debate on "Ivoirité") and the underdevelopment of the North. There is also room for improvement in the field of good governance, especially in the cacao and oil industries.

Ghana is a stable country with a good record in terms of democracy and governance. The delegation met the President of the AU, President Kufuor. At the moment Ghana faces problems of energy shortcuts: due to less rainfall the Akosombo dam is no longer able to produce enough electricity -a clear case of the implications of climate change for development.

The interlocutors of the delegation in the three countries were almost unanimously critical about the negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreements:
- EPAs should aim primarily at development,
- there should be more time for the negotiations and the EU should negotiate in the framework of WTO, an extension of the preferential regime of the ACP countries,
- supply sides constraints should be taken into consideration and the production capacity should be strengthened before opening the markets.