In depth

The Commission has appointed Lucio Battistotti as new Head of Representation in Rome, Italy. He took on his new duties on 1 September, 2009.

Representations are the official voice of the European Commission in the Member States. They are responsible for explaining policies of the European Union and making Europe more understandable to people.

Geneva, 17 Jul -- The least developed countries (LDCs), hit the hardest by the current global economic crisis, need a new development path, with the State playing a greater role, and adopting an incremental approach for building "new developmental States", according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The EPA agreements do not contain any special safeguard provisions, but the bilateral safeguard mechanism has been extended to include certain agriculture products.

Africa-Europe business relations in the agriculture and agribusiness sectors are the focus of this OECD report.

This publication by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, presents four possible outcomes of current trade negotiations to establish an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the West African Region and the EU.

EPA Negotiations: West Africa must not accept a headlong rush! On June 17, 2009, West African chief negotiators and those from the European Union came to the conclusion that it was impossible to conclude the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

The heads of state as well as government, international and regional organisations approved the L’Aquila Initiative on Global Food Security on 10 July 2009.

September:

· Negotiations for the final EPA, incl. with South Africa and Angola (venue/date tbc)

· 11 EU– South Africa Summit, South Africa

· 16-18 ILO/CARICOM Workshop on International Trade Negotiations, FTAs and the Decent Work Agenda, Portof- Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

· 21-26 EU-West Africa EPA negotiations (venue tbc)

· 22-23 7th meeting of Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Trade Negotiating Group, Saint Lucia

· 23-25 CARIFORUM/French Caribbean Overseas Regions/ European Overseas Countries and Territories TF on EPA, Martinique

· 28 17th Session of the ACP Parliamentary Assembly and Intercessional Meetings of the ACP-EU JPA, Brussels

The 27th September 2009 marked the 7th anniversary of the launch of the EPA talks. Since 2004 civil society organisations in the EU and the ACP countries have declared this Stop EPAs Day, a day of protest against the EU approach to EPAs.

European and West African negotiators met in Brussels from 21 to 25 September to discuss the way forward towards a regional Economic Partnership Agreement.