The Week in Europe
  By David Jessop
   
  Where will the Caribbean be ten years from now? Will life be better? Will the region as a whole have made the leap to something close to first world status as Trinidad and Barbados’ Prime Ministers hope, or will parts of it have regressed to where it was in the 1960s or 1970s? 
   
  These are questions that are beginning to arise in the minds of policy makers in some parts of Europe and the Caribbean for when the trade issues that currently occupy most of the space in the transatlantic dialogue gradually fade away.
   
  This is not to say that the problem of obtaining adequate transitional support for sugar is anywhere near to being resolved, that the difficult debate on multilateral trade liberalisation presently underway at the World Trade Organisation is over or that the very different type of development problems of the Caribbean’s small and vulnerable middle-ranking developing economies face have been addressed.
   
  Rather it is to suggest there is a growing sense that in the formal and informal international meetings that take place, the nature of the debate has to change, action has to follow and that to achieve this there may be value in trying to look over the horizon. 
   
  Such an approach tries to incorporate new thinking from the region. Instead of focussing on present problems it looks at the region’s and individual nations ambition and then seeks to identify practical or alternative ways towards achieving objectives.
  It is an approach that arises from a sense of frustration that the Caribbean is not moving on or setting clear objectives.
   
  So what might the ideal world of 2015 or 2020 look like?
   
  While the answer will to a significant extent depend on political outlook or the country in which you are located, a broad view might suggest the following.
   
  By 2020 the Caribbean should have achieved a fully integrated economy, with free movement of labour and capital. All nations will be experiencing economic growth. There will positive flow of domestic, inter-regional and external investment from within the region and from beyond that recognises the value of a single market and economy and the region as a natural location for knowledge based service industries.
   
  Tourism’s importance will have been recognised and the industry fully integrated into every aspect of the economy with the resulting effect that it is understood to be the principle motor of much of the Caribbean economy. 
   
  Strides will have been made in restoring education at all levels to a position of central importance in development. Economic progress will have enabled the creation and financing of health care systems and infrastructure, as well as social welfare programmes that genuinely touch the lives of all. 
   
  The burgeoning problems of crime and violence will have been addressed as will the distorting effect of the money from narcotics and arms trafficking that in the broadest sense threaten to corrupt many economies. 
   
  The importance of the Caribbean’s environment will have been recognised as a vital asset and will be protected by regionally developed legislation and regulations. As with tourism, the language of the environment will have been fully incorporated into all political rhetoric and all regional and international debate touching on the region.
   
  A system of supra national governance will have been established in which a Caribbean Commission, the Caribbean Court of Justice and a host of inter-regional regulatory bodies take decisions in a transparent way that ensure that the region acts as one. 
   
  In the area international relationships a new balance will have been struck between Europe, the US, Canada, China, Brazil and India. A development oriented Economic Partnership Agreement with Europe will be in place and it trade and development provisions will be bringing real benefit to the region and helping prepare the way for its participation in hemispheric and global economic integration processes. In the United Kingdom, the US and Canada the Diaspora will have been mobilised to ensure that the region’s concerns are heard and acted upon. 
   
  And the West Indies cricket team will again be globally pre-eminent.
   
  But in the real world how much of this far from comprehensive list is even partially achievable or within the practical grasp of any government? Moreover who in Europe or elsewhere is able in any sustained way to support region-driven processes or have reason enough to care for over a decade or more? 
   
  The truth is there is hardly anyone left in Europe who understands where the relationship with the Caribbean has come from. Those who did have gone. In academia, in business and in politics there is little interest. Strikingly there appears to be no senior official in Brussels, London or any other European capital who understands other than in the most peripheral way anything about Caribbean history, the colonial or post colonial relationship or why this creates unique sensitivities and relationships.
   
  In a Europe of twenty-five member states the policy framework within which the Caribbean as a whole is considered, now owes little to development.  Africa is the centre of attention while the Caribbean is regarded, largely on the basis of its GDP figures, as too wealthy in comparison. 
   
  While the European Union, the region’s largest donor of assistance, remains committed to regional development, new approaches are now under active consideration that will cause over time the nature of the development and political relationship to change radically. 
   
  All of which suggests that no matter how accurate or perceptive Europe’s or the Caribbean’s long term analysis of where it wants to be or the problems it faces, Europe no longer has any sustainable interest or wherewithal to deliver solutions.
  This implies that for the Caribbean, politicians, the public sector, academics and much of the private sector need to find a new language, act differently and cultivate new friends in the world. It also argues for a better understanding that vision, efficiency and well-regulated competition enables growth and change within whatever social or economic model has been chosen.
   
  Europe’s actions over sugar and bananas suggest that this is a moment for reflection not just about the impact on individual nations but about the way the Caribbean relates to the world and sees its own future. But experience shows that this will only have value if it leads to a long-term commitment by the region and all its external partners to action and measurable progress. 
   
  David Jessop is the Director of the Caribbean Council and can be contacted at [log in to unmask]
  December 16th, 2006
   
  NOTE TO EDITORS  This is the last column until the New Year. The next week in Europe will be filed on January 5th, 2006


		
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