Sessions plénières

The main points of the meeting Thursday 17 June were:

Statement by Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner for International Partnerships, followed by a debate, report on the meeting with former JPA Co-Presidents on 7 June, report on the first meeting of the JPA Drafting Committee on 31 May.

Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen spoke about the initialled Post-Cotonou Agreement and global vaccinations roll-out. She underlined that the Agreement was a significant achievement, also because the EU and ACP together represent 1.5 billion people and account for more than half of the seats at the UN. It was therefore an important contribution to multilateralism and to the promotion of human rights, gender equality, democracy and good governance, and climate action. She also referred to the budgetisation of the EDF through NDICI/Global Europe and stated that more than EUR 30 billion had been earmarked for the geographic cooperation with the ACP regions for the next 7 years. On vaccines, she referred to the EUR 3 billion contribution to COVAX, the promised donation of 100 million vaccination doses and the planned Team Europe Initiative to strengthen vaccine and medicine production in Africa.

· ACP Co-President Peter Kenilorea reported on the points underlined by former Presidents during the virtual meeting that took place 7 June, including the need to strengthen the co-secretariat(s) and parliamentary autonomy from the executive. Enhanced outreach of the JPA to civil society (in particular youth and women) was underlined, as was connecting the JPA with national parliaments on both sides.

· The debate on the future of EU-OACPS cooperation addressed: (i) the position of some Member States on the Post-Cotonou Agreement and possible delays to the procedure; the EU inter-institutional procedure and the preparation of consent procedure in the European Parliament; the nature of the agreement (EU only or mixed),the future role of the JPA and possible overlapping with the RPAs, and (ii) the implementation of COVAX in ACP countries; equitable distribution of vaccines; the possibility of developing facilities for in-country production in ACP countries; waiver of the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS); the impact of the COVID 19 crisis on women and children; protection of LGBTQI economic recovery strategies.

The meeting was webstreamed here.

The main points of the meeting on Thursday 24 June were:

Statement by Francisco André, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (Portugal), President-in-Office of the EU Council

Mr André mentioned the COVID-19 and the green 'transformation'; important developments for the EU-ACP cooperation during the Portuguese Presidency, including the conclusion of the Post-Cotonou Agreement and Global Europe. Moreover, he listed the full implementation of the Post-Cotonou Agreement and the international cooperation on peace, sustainable developments and human rights as priorities for the future and called for increased support to the private sector, more human development and solid joint diplomatic efforts by the EU and ACP countries to influence international fora together.

Statement by Ambassador Moses K. Mose, Ambassador of the Solomon Islands in Brussels

Ambassador Moses K. Mose stressed the need to support culture creative industries and tourism, as these sectors y suffered severely during the pandemic. With reference to the latter, he added that the OACPS supports the idea of developing an international treaty on the pandemic for increasing resilience, shared responsibility and solidarity. Looking to the future, the Ambassador stressed the importance of a multilateral environment and reforming the multilateral system in order to make governance more transparent and accountable, and the wish to continue the EU-OACPS partnership focused on peace stability and solidarity.

Exchange of views with economic and social partners and civil society - the functioning of ACP-EU JPA and the new RPAs under the new OACPS-EU Agreement

European Economic and Social Committee representatives noted that civil society is present, organised and willing to participate in the implementation of the Post-Cotonou Agreement. Civil society representatives added that the EU-ACP JPA is the only joint assembly to allow civil society to participate, and that it was essential to represent the diversity of civil society. Moreover, they believed that the Women's Forum and Youth Forum were valuable and should engage more with civil society in the future. They concluded that the JPA and RPAs should rely on input from civil society. Members noted that a democratic society needs organised civil society, that the JPA should have an advocacy role for civil society, and that cooperation with civil society should be scaled up in quantity and quality.

The meeting was webstreamed here.