Glenys Kinnock (PSE). - Mr President, I can confirm, as others have done, that what we have seen since Cathy Ashton became Commissioner has been a sea change not only in style and tone, but also in vocabulary and now increasingly in substance.

I am sure the Commissioner will agree with me and many of us in this room that we still face a formidable task as we try now to build and rebuild trust after years of negotiation which have created enormous amounts of tension and acrimony.

In the almost exactly 10 years since Cotonou was signed, we have to remind ourselves what actually was said in the agreements about the trade prospects between ACP and EU. The wording was ‘a new framework for trade which is equivalent to their existing situation and in conformity with WTO rules’. We have to really work much more towards fulfilling those objectives.

The policy of concluding separate deals with separate countries has led to serious inconsistencies, and I can confirm to those who do not know the Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA), and who do not have as much contact with parliamentarians in the ACP as I and others in this room have, that it has created really very difficult situations and severely damaged the cohesion that I perceived amongst the ACP in the past. I know that just a few weeks ago the new President of Ghana wrote a letter on behalf of the entire ACP group to the EU Presidency, and he claimed that the EPA process continued to threaten the very existence of some of the regional integration groupings. That is a recent comment by a new president.

ACP parliamentarians tell us at every single one of our meetings that there has barely been any engagement with them and little, if any, consultation with them. I would like the Commissioner to tell us what she might think is appropriate in the future on this.

I am pleased to see what has happened in the SADC negotiations, but clear commitments on the modification of texts, transition periods for tariff regularisation, safeguards, rules of origin etc. are now up for grabs there with SADC, and hopefully you will confirm that they are options for all the ACP countries who will be continuing to negotiate.

Will you tell us please, Commissioner, that you will insist on precise commitments in an EPA to development programmes and that trade liberalisation has to be linked to development benchmarks? If that is the case, how will you do it?

Will you see to it that there are legally binding commitments in EPAs to the provision of time-scaled and predictable funding?

Commissioner, I think the ACP countries, as you said to us earlier, face a period of slower growth and, for the first time in 25 years, efforts to reduce poverty are being brought to a close. I have just two final quick points, one on the CARIFORUM EPA: it is not a perfect outcome but it still needs safeguards.

On Côte d’Ivoire, we need to have the reassurances that Erika Mann asked for and which Mr Van Hecke asked for. That is very important for us.

(The President cut off the speaker.)