The Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States

Welcome remarks by Sir John Rumet KAPUTIN
8th Meeting of the ACP National and Regional Authorizing Officers ACP House,
Brussels 30 – 31 January 2008

Wednesday 30 January 2008

Honourable Ministers,
Excellency Ambassadors
Distinguished Delegates,

It is with great pleasure and honour that I welcome you all to the ACP House for this Ministerial level meeting of the ACP National and regional Authorizing Officers. May I also extend to you my heartfelt greetings and best wishes for the year 2008.

Nearly all of you have traveled long distances. Therefore, your presence here today is a clear testimony of the seriousness which you attach to the critically important issue of development cooperation between the ACP Group of States and the European Union.

The subject of development cooperation has been topical in recent years following the recognized need to seriously address the unacceptable situation of so many people living in abject poverty. In the year 2000, the leaders of the world congregated in New York and issued the millennium declaration which set out goals that range from halving extreme poverty, to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. This formed the blueprint agreed to by all the countries in the world and also by all the world’s leading development institutions to harness efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.

All efforts since have been geared towards meeting the set goals. At the ACP-EU level, the two partners have been engaged in various efforts to adapt their cooperation framework to respond not only to the political commitments of the European Union but more importantly to the evolving needs of the ACP States.

It is in this regard that the Cotonou Agreement was revised. The ACP-EU partners agreed on a series of amendments that were meant to cater for the various interests and concerns expressed by both sides. Let me mention a few of these revisions, some of which will be on the agenda for your meeting.

• A reference to the - Millennium Development Goals was included in the preamble of the revised Cotonou Agreement reaffirming the Parties’ commitment to those goals.
• The Non-state actors were enabled to access indicative programme resources, under a strategy approved by the Commission and the ACP State concerned. These actors can now benefit directly from financing via grant contracts drawn up between the Commission and the body in question. However, the types of non-state actor and activities to be supported must initially be identified in the country strategy paper.

With regard to implementation and management procedures of EDF funds, amendments were made with the threefold objective of simplification, clarification and harmonization. The harmonization of procedures was actually discussed extensively in the meeting that preceded this one.

Greater flexibility in the allocation of resources has been an innovation of the revised Cotonou. We have seen a welcome move towards the introduction of user friendly instrument such as budget support and also MDG contracts. These are useful tools for delivery of development support because of their predictability, which is necessary for planning.

Another proposal relates to the support for initiatives on untying of aid, in particular in the framework of ACP cooperation and regional integration efforts. For far too long, aid conditionalities has diminished accessibility beneficiary ACP States. Any measure to remove these conditionalities should be welcomed.

Yet another revision touches on the responsibilities of managing and executing agents. These have been reformulated leading to the strengthening of the strategic role of the national and regional authorizing officers.

Distinguished delegates,

I have decided to bring out some of few but relevant changes in the revised Cotonou Agreement which are of concern to the national and regional authorizing officers. I do so because to date the revised Cotonou Agreement is yet to be ratified. As main beneficiaries for the EDF funding, it would have been expected that the ACP side would be quick to ratify. I call on the Honourable Ministers concerned to urge the relevant authorities in their countries to hasten the ratification process, so that the implementation of the 10th EDF can commence without further delay.

As the Senior Officials were informed, it is worth noting that the period of implementation of this 10th EDF partly coincides with a number of important stages in the European and global development agenda. This include

• the execution of the official development aid commitments of the EU and Member States;
• the drive towards the achievement of the MDGs by 2015;
• the mobilisation of the issue of effectiveness of aid, including the 2008 Accra summit on the follow-up to the Paris Declaration;
• the new EU-Africa strategy; EU-Caribbean strategy and EU-Pacific strategies
• the implementation of the EPAs; and
• the review of the financial perspectives in 2010.

It is essential for the ACP group, and in particular, the NAOs and RAOs to adequately monitor or prepare for these events, as the case may be. We, as ACP have to play our rightful role of shaping and coming up with the expected outcomes.

Distinguished delegates

The Senior Officials have met for the last two days, in preparation for your meeting. They have come up with a comprehensive report containing specific recommendations for your consideration. I trust that you will find the report useful in your deliberations. On our part as your secretariat, we stand ready at all times to assist you in your work.

With these welcoming and introductory remarks, I wish us all a successful and productive meeting and thank you for your kind attention.

Thank you.