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SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 21ST MEETING OF THE
COUNCIL OF ACP MINISTERS
Brussels, 25 October 1979 Ref: ACP/690/79 (Secr.) KK/ja/pa
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SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 21ST MEETING OF THECOUNCIL OF ACP MINISTERSBrussels, 25 October 1979 Ref: ACP/690/79 (Secr.) KK/ja/pa |
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The 21st meeting of the Council ACP Ministers was held on the afternoon of Thursday 13 September and all day on Friday 14 September 1979, in ACP House, Brussels.
The meeting of the Council was chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados, Mr ST. JOHN, President of the Council of ACP Ministers. It dealt mainly with examining and searching for solutions to those matters which remained outstanding after the ACP/EEC negotiating conference for the new Convention, held in June. The question of where the signing of the new Convention should take place also lengthy attention by the Council. The agenda of the 21st meeting is set out at Annex I.
Finally, the courtesy visit paid on the Council on Friday 14 September by the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr SIAKA STEVENS, should be mentioned. The Council interrupted its work to listen to a short speech of encouragement and support by the President, who also presented some gifts to ACP House - a sculpture of a traditional Sierra Leonean Chief and a carved table. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of foreign Affairs and trade of Papua New Guinea, Mr N. EBIA OLEWALE, speaking on behalf of the ACP, thanked the President of Sierra Leonean republic for his support and gifts.
WORK OF THE COUNCIL
1. COMMUNICATION FROM THE PRESIDENT
In the message which he gave after the agenda had been adopted, the President of the Council OF ACP Ministers, Mr ST JOHN, first paid his respects to his predecessor, the Minister Mr Michel ANCHOUEY, for the excellent work he had accomplished during the negotiations, the support which the former President had given him and finally, for his efforts to take up again and to preserve the contacts with the President-in-office of the European communities on the subject of the matters left outstanding after the ACP/EEC Ministerial conference in June.
In an attempt to keep up his predecessor's good work, President ST JOHN had been to Dublin, at the invitation of the President-in-office of the European Communities the first Minister, Mr O'KENNEDY. The two Presidents, aware of the limits of their respective mandates, had abstained from re-opening negotiations, they had, rather, looked at the broad outlines of the outstanding problems, which may be classified as follows :
- questions on which basic agreement was not reached during the negotiations;
- areas where, despite basic agreement, some divergences still exist as to content, or points where divergence occurs as to whether the wording of the text accurately reflects the spirits of the agreement;
- questions of a legal nature (such as the classification and position of certain declarations, etc ....) (See annex II).
The two Co-Presidents, President ST JOHN stated, had also discussed the date for the signing of the new convention. It had emerged that the latter part of October would be acceptable to both parties.
2. CONSIDERATION OF THE DRAFT TEXTS TO THE NEW CONVENTION
After observing one minute's silence, in memory of Mr Agostinho NETO, President of the People's Republic of Angola, and of the victims of cyclone David in the Caribbean,(1)
the Secretary-General made a fairly detailed report to the Council on the ad referendum results obtained by the ACP/EEC co-Secretariat, which had endeavoured, after the Dublin meeting, to bring the viewpoints of the two sides closer together. The co-Secretariat had, in his way, managed to resolve a few of the difficulties relating to the 18 points outstanding after the Ministerial conference of June.
Following the Secretary-General's remarks, and right up until the end of the first day of work (Thursday 13 September), the Council held long discussions and formulated observations and recommendations to guide the ACP President during the working meeting planned for the same evening with representatives of the EEC President and of the Commission to seek solutions to the matters which were still outstanding the results of this ACP/EEC working session were submitted to the Council for consideration the following day, 14 September.
During the run-down of the 18 point under consideration, the Council either approved the solutions adopted the day before by the ACP President and the EEC Representatives, or made comments and recommendations. The Council's conclusions on the whole set of outstanding questions are contained in Doc. ACP/647/79 (Secr.) Rev. 1 (Annex V).
The questions which are still outstanding are :
1. the list of agricultural products (rice);
2. article 64 on investments;
3. article 82 relating to investment promotion in the least developed, landlocked and island ACP States;
4. the question of the EIB's use of its own resources for investment in mining and energy (Article 59 and Declaration N° 9 of the minutes of signature); and
5. the question of Zaire's inclusion in the list of landlocked countries.
The Council also gave a mandate (see Annex VI) to its President to seek for solutions to the above points and to problems relating to sugar and Somalian bananas, referring those encountered in applying the present convention.
The President indicated that he would try to solve these problems before the end of September, so that the ceremony of signature could take place, if possible, at the end of October. The committee of Ambassadors would also cooperate in seeking solutions to the outstanding issues; the President assured the Council that it would have the opportunity of commenting on the draft of the new Convention before it was signed.
At the end of these discussions, the Chairman of the Sub-committee on Trade Cooperation, Ambassador DIARRA of the Ivory Coast, gave an account to the Council of how he had discharged his mandate to the distributions of the ACP Group's beef quota. After a great deal of effort, the following shares had been agreed upon :
Botswana : 18,916 T, or 63.05 %
Madagascar : 7,579 T, or 21.27 %
Swaziland : 3,363 T, or 11.21 %
Kenya : 147 T, or 0.47 %
Ambassador DIARRA also mentioned to the Council the new idea which the ACP Group had been introduced following an exchange of letters with the EEC, by which quota be transferred from one State to another.
This distribution had on the whole, been acceptable to the ACP beef producers. However, the Representative of Botswana had asked to make a declaration on the subject (see Annex VII).
3. DATE AND PLACE FOR THE SIGNING OF THE NEW CONVENTION
This question formed the subject of a lengthy debate in the Council. The President indicated that, despite the efforts made by both the former President of the Council of ACP Ministers and himself, no solution to this problem had yet been found; the two countries which were candidates (the Sudan and Togo) were both still in the ring, each considering that it could count on a majority of the ACP States' votes. The question had been further complicated by the fact that some countries had not put down their choice in writing.
As is was essential for the matter to be settled during the meeting, the Council, after lengthy discussion, approved Guyana's proposal for deciding on where the signature should take place by a secret vote and a simple majority.
This method of voting produced the following result :
Togo : 26
Sudan : 21
Abstentions : 2
Absent : 5 [Comores, Dominica, Saint Lucia,
Seychelles and Sierra Leone].
Summing up, Togo was chosen as the place where the new Convention would be signed. The date, falling between 30 October and 6 November, would be decided on later by the two sides.
President ST JOHN ended by declaring that when the two Presidents make their speeches at the ceremony for the signature, reference may be made to the question of Human Rights. The Community may allude to Human Rights in the same way that this was mentioned in the resolution adopted at Monrovia by the Heads of State and of Government of the Organization for African Unity. For its part, the ACP may refer to the recent declaration made in Lusaka by the Commonwealth Heads of State and of Government.
After discussion of a date which would suit the ACP and Libreville, the country expecting to host the next ACP Council, the Council instructed the Committee of Ambassadors to try to settle this matter.
4. EXAMINATION OF KIRIBATI'S REQUEST FOR ACCESSION TO THE CONVENTION
The Council unanimously approved the request for accession made by Kiribati, formerly known as Gilbert, one of the Pacific Islands.
5. RESOLUTION CONCERNING EXPERT MARKETS FOR SOMALIAN BANANAS
The Council also unanimously approved a resolution relating to the marketing of Somalian Bananas (see Annex VIII). The question will also be raised by the President when he talks to his Community counterpart.
6. RESOLUTION ON THE PROGRAMME FOR THE TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS DECADE IN AFRICA
Finally, the Council adopted the resolution which had been submitted, on the Programme for the Transport and Communications decade in Africa (Annex IX).