146b090e
7 December 2001.
ACP Council of Ministers. Summit of ACP Heads of State and government convened in 2002 in Fiji.
The ACP Council of Ministers, in its 74th session held in Brussels (6-7 December 2001) decided that the 3rd ACP Summit should be held in 2002, prior to the start of trade negotiations with the European Union. The Council accepted the offer of Fiji to host this Summit.
At their first summit held in Libreville in November 1997, the Heads of State and Government of ACP countries committed themselves to consolidating the political identity of the ACP Group so as to enable it to act and speak with a single voice in all international fora. In the Santo Domingo Declaration adopted after their second summit in November 1999, they equally committed themselves to constructing an adequate forum for consultation on issues relating to global policy and the global economy. Since that summit, the international situation has kept evolving and was particularly marked by the recent events of 11 September in the United States and the geopolitical and economic repercussions.
In this context, for the first time at the 4 th WTO Ministerial Conference held at Doha from 9 to 14 November 2001, the African Caribbean and Pacific States, as a Group, seized the opportunity to speak with a single voice and thereby to play an important role within an international body, highlighting the perspicacity of the conclusions of the Libreville and Santo Domingo Summits.
It is therefore indispensable to capitalise on the first acquis of this vision with a view to redefining the global political and economic landscape and repositioning our forces within the multilateral trading system and the future ACP-EC trade negotiations.
The ACP Group which, by virtue of its numerical strength and geographical scope, has today become visible as one of the most important groupings of the developing countries.
At the international economic level, the 11 September attacks have suddenly accentuated the signs of recession, which had already begun to show. The resultant slump in the global economic activity will probably have considerable adverse effects, especially on the ACP countries. In this regard, there is general awareness that the divisions in the world between the rich and the poor constitute a threat to peace; an awareness that has become a parameter for mobilizing the international community to intensify its efforts at eradicating poverty.
The ACP Heads of State and Government could therefore examine the measures that would enable the ACP countries to adapt, to the best extent possible, to this new situation.
contact : Hegel Goutier tel : +32 2 743 06 04 fax + 32 2 743 06 58 http://www.acp.int