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Dear all David Jessop (Caribbean Council of Europe) writes a column entitled 'The Week in Europe' which is published in various newspapers in the Caribbean. He has kindly consented to allow me to send this column out to the mailbase members every week. The column deals with the relationship between Caribbean states and Europe. I am sure it will prove an informative addition to the mailbase and who knows, it might stimulate some discussion! Amanda The Week in Europe By David Jessop A little over a month ago, the 71 nation group of African, Caribbean and Pacific states (the ACP) met in a packed late night session in Brussels. There, the ACP Council of Ministers agreed by acclamation to support Cuba's wish to become a signatory to the successor arrangement to the Lomé Convention. This will be known either as the Suva Convention or possibly the Suva Partnership Agreement and will be signed in Fiji at the end of May. The unanimous ACP endorsement of Cuba's application - proposed by the Dominican Republic and sponsored by the Caribbean - provides full support for any decision Cuba might take to accede to the new agreement. However, it does not ensure the European Union (EU) will agree. The ACP decision while not a formal part of the post Lomé negotiations leaves the EU in the position of preparing to study any detailed request from the Cuban Government. Havana had earlier sent the EU written notification requesting membership and Cuba's observers at the negotiations had indicated Cuba's desire to become a member on the new Convention. What is now required is a much closer understanding of Cuba's intentions in relation to the new arrangement. These have not as yet been fully spelt out but it appears that Cuba wishes to accede to the new agreement as soon as possible. However, this is not to say it wants necessarily to make use of the provisions of Lomé or most aspects of the Suva Convention. Cuba has yet to decide how much of what presently is on offer to the ACP it will seek. For instance it could be that it may not seek to access the existing trade and aid provisions but seek instead some minimalist basis for involvement while participating fully in the next round of trade negotiations. The reasons for this are complex. At present Cuba is the only nation in the Americas, which does not have any partnership arrangement with the EU. However, it is in the process of deepening its economic ties with its Caricom neighbours the independent members of which are all ACP members. In part, the new Suva Convention will provide the basis for the regions of the ACP to prepare for an eventual transition to free trade with Europe. This means that the Caribbean as Caricom will enter in 2008 into new trade arrangements with the EU and over the 12 or more years thereafter, the region will move to a new largely reciprocal economic relationship with Europe. Thus future trade negotiations under the Suva Convention will determine the pace at which Caribbean/EU trade will be liberalised and the nature and timing of the post 2008 process. It will also allow for special transitional mechanisms, development assistance, support for industries, and special exemptions for nations or products. In this process Cuba wishes to ensure that its interests are protected and it is not isolated in trade and economic terms in the region with which it is integrating. Thus it needs to participate fully in the next ACP/EU negotiations that begin in 2003 and the only way to achieve this is to become a signatory to the Suva Convention. Thus, seen from a Cuban perspective it is positioning more than immediate trade advantage or politics that should be at the heart of any discussion on its accession to the Suva Convention. Despite this a new relationship of the kind envisaged could give substance to a Cuban development-led dialogue with Europe and it is this and its political implications, which continue to interest many observers. Up to now exchanges between Cuba and the EU have been conducted in the context of a common European position. This has been politically led and seeks a calibrated series of responses from Cuba to any steps taken by the EU to improve the relationship. Not surprisingly this approach has made little if any progress. Indeed, some EU diplomats comment wryly that the EU's present position on Cuba is neither common nor a position. It is in part this thinking that has led to some EU members states, most notably France and Spain, to believe that movement might be better achieved through the broad based and nuanced development mechanisms contained in the new Convention To become a signatory to the new agreement Cuba will require the support of all 15 EU member states. The European Commission has now begun the process of informal inter-European consultations. So far the EU has not officially commented on the Cuban application other than to note it willingness to begin a dialogue, but some member states have already made it known that they would not want Cuba offered the same terms as existing ACP states. Instead they are arguing that it will be necessary for the EU to consider carefully what conditions it would require Cuba to fulfil if it were to become a signatory. This is short sighted. Few would quarrel with the reservations of nations like Germany about aspects of Cuba's system, but this is to miss the point. The EU's relationship with the ACP embraces a wide range of nations with different political and economic systems. It has partnership and other programmes with countries in which there has been a total absence of the rule of law or worse. This is to say nothing of the vast numbers of ACP countries that cannot match the levels of social provision Cuba is able to offer. More importantly Cuba within a trade and development framework offers practical ways to integrate the island into the Caribbean mainstream and new ways for the EU to engage in dialogue on a wide range of issues. Cuba inside the Suva arrangement is a necessity for the Caribbean if it is to have weight in the international community and the ability to resist at the WTO and elsewhere the worst excesses of trade liberalization. Cuba within the ACP will be of value to the organisation and enable new types of south-south linkages to be created given Cuba's unique and historic role in Africa. Cuba within a new ACP relationship with the EU no matter how initially minimal a position Havana might seek, places Cuba firmly within the mainstream of Europe's relations with the developing world. ACP states have largely completed the facilitation process. It is now up to Cuba to make a case to EU member states as to why Europe should agree that it becomes a signatory to the new Convention. But more importantly the EU must consider carefully whether there is any value in leaving Cuba isolated any longer. As this column has noted before any future instability in Cuba will have unpredictable ramifications for the region as a whole. David Jessop is the Executive Director of the Caribbean Council for Europe . March 3rd 2000 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%