"Crisis won't affect ACP-EU cooperation" ACP-EU Assembly co-chair Assarid

Co-operation between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries took a step forward with the Cotonou Agreement in 2000. Since then, MEPs and MPs from the ACP meet twice a year to debate development issues. Co-chair of this week's joint assembly meeting in Togo, Assarid Ag Imbarcaouane from Mali, agreed to answer some questions about development, the financial crisis and the Arab Spring.

What are the main challenges facing  ACP countries today?

They are the same challenges as those of the EU: good management of resources, bringing governments together to vote on good budgets, ensuring transparent management of public finances and diligent management of development aid that we receive from our partners.

Take Mali for example. We do not have any natural resources, no petrol, nor gas, but we manage to pay our civil servants and complete infrastructure projects, like roads, bridges...That's good management, we try to manage our public finances appropriately. 

If we mismanage the resources we receive from the EU's European Development Fund (EDF), we will never be able to develop our countries. .

Could the financial crisis affect ACP-EU relations? Are you worried there will be a reduction in development aid from Europe?

I don' think so. The crisis is temporary…Commissioner Piebalgs and the Commission have told us that the resources allocated to ACP countries will increase 30%, despite everything that is happening in Europe.

Europe's wealth has not disappeared, it is still very much there. Europe won't fall because of speculation on public finances by banks. I firmly believe that the crisis won't have an impact on cooperation between the EU and ACP countries.

Events in Libya have triggered fears of destabilisation in the Sub-Saharan region. How do you view the Arab Spring?

It isn't the Arab Spring, it isn't what is happening in Tunisia or Egypt, that is the problem. It's what's happening in Libya with NATO's intervention that is the problem.

We have a lot of citizens in Mali who have dual Libyan-Malian nationality. Following the war, and because they were treated as "mercenaries" by the National Transitional Council, they have returned to the northern region of Mail . They have vehicles and weapons and we are currently negotiating with them to see how they can be reintegrated into Malian society.

There are some concerns because these are young people who only know about the armed forces. We must, therefore, come up with solutions. We believe that Europe, in time, will help us deal with the situation.

The ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) brings together MEPs and MPs from the 78 ACP states who signed the Cotonou Agreement. The Agreement forms the basis of  co-operation on development issues between the ACP and EU. The Assembly  is currently co-chaired by Assarid Ag Imbarcaouane, from Mali and the Louis Michel from Belgium.

This interview was conducted in French