Seychelles backing helps start ACP assembly |05 May 2005

The agreement was reached at the April 18 to 21 ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, held in Bamako, Mali, but, of the 79 ACP member states, only 27 – including Seychelles – were ready to put pen to paper.

Representing Seychelles at the meeting, which brings together assembly members and parliamentarians from across Europe and the ACP, National Assembly Member Barry Faure said that local endorsement for the new body was reached at the National Assembly sitting on April 5.

Speaking about the formation of the new group MNA Faure said that, "the occasion was right and the timing was right," adding that if the agreement had not been reached in Bamako the signing would have been delayed until the next ACP-EU session, scheduled to be held in a European country in November.

But despite the pressure to reach agreement on ACP "home soil" the signing only just scrapped through, with the bear minimum one third of members joining up.
MNA Faure said that the time schedules of some member countries' legislatures had prevented national backing being given to the new body this time round, especially as many countries in the group have other priorities.

The ACP Parliamentary Assembly may have been put on the back burner of the various national legislatures as the body itself wields no official power.

"The body is a consultative parliamentary assembly. We do not have powers of negotiation or decision which affect governments or the EU, but in our parliamentary capacity we have the power to request ministers and officials to attend our meetings, to answer our questions and as such to influence their decisions," said MNA Faure.

Despite the lack of authority MNA Faure denied that the assembly is completely toothless.

"It is more than a simple talking shop as we are elected representatives of the people and we are supposed to come to the table with agenda which are of concern to our different national parliaments and therefore our people. So, when we raise issues it is for us to seek justice, progress and develop."

MNA Faure also said that the ACP-EU had been given assurances from the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that declarations issued by the group would be considered ahead of the UN's September meeting to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

The recent meeting was the ninth session of the ACP-EU Joint parliamentary Assembly and resulted in the drawing up of the Bamako Declaration on the MDGs.