Background
13th ACP-EU session to take place in Wiesbaden
Development and cooperation - 18-06-2007 - 17:02
The ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) holds its 13th session from 23 to 28 June in Wiesbaden, Germany. On the agenda will be the economic partnership agreements between the two groups of countries as well as the situations in Darfur and Zimbabwe.
The opening sitting on Monday 25 June will be followed by a press conference at 1pm in the Kurhaus, Wiesbaden, in which the following will take part: Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament, Glenys Kinnock and René Radembino-Coniquet, co-presidents of the JPA, Michael Gahler MEP, vice-president of the JPA, and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, German development minister. Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organisation, has also been invited to address the JPA.
The JPA brings together Members of the European Parliament and MPs from the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states which have signed the Cotonou Agreement that governs EU relations with the ACP for a 20-year period.
The JPA is the parliamentary dimension of this partnership, whose aim is to eradicate poverty and gradually integrate the ACP states into the world economy on the basis of sustainable development.
REF.: 20070615BKG07923
Composition and working methods
The representatives of the 78 ACP states - who, under the Cotonou Agreement, must be members of parliament - meet their 78 European Parliament counterparts in plenary sessions of the JPA twice a year. The Assembly meets alternately in an ACP state and an EU state, in the latter case generally the one holding the EU presidency. The next session in an ACP country will take place in Kigali (Rwanda) in November 2007.
Two co-presidents elected by the Assembly direct its work. Currently, Glenys Kinnock (PES, UK) is the European co-president. René Radembino-Coniquet of Benin is her ACP counterpart.
The Bureau of the JPA is made up of the two co-presidents plus twenty-four vice-presidents (12 European and 12 ACP), also elected by the Assembly.
The 12 European vice-presidents are:
Michael Gahler (EPP-ED, DE), Mario Mantovani (EPP-ED, IT), Paul Vergès (GUE/NGL, FR), Marie-Arlette Carlotti (PES, FR), Gay Mitchell (EPP-ED, IE), Bernat Joan i Mari (Greens/EFA, ES), Astrid Lulling (EPP-ED, LU), Michal Tomasz Kaminski (UEN, PL), Thierry Cornillet (ALDE, FR), Miguel Angel Martinez Martinez (PES, ES), John Bowis (EPP-ED, UK) et Hélène Goudin (IND/DEM, SE).
The Bureau meets several times a year to ensure continuity of the JPA's work. It also considers topical political questions and adopts positions on all human rights cases.
Three Standing Committees were created in 2003 to draw up draft reports which are then voted on by the full Assembly. These are:
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the Committee on Political Affairs
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the Committee on Economic Development, Finance and Trade
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the Committee on Social Affairs and the Environment