EU softens on Africa's EPA demands

Speaking at the launch of a new booklet on the EPAs in Windhoek yesterday, Dr Malan Lindeque, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, said the "negotiating climate" had changed for the better in the past few weeks as concerns raised by several African countries about unresolved issues were receiving more attention.

"After the European summer break, the next round will surely be more conclusive," Lindeque said.

"Namibia, South Africa and Angola's concerns are receiving attention.

The EPAs are to be signed at the end of this year, but they affect the sovereignty of a state and will have quite an impact on the existing Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) and the envisaged larger customs union planned in a few years by the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC)."

Namibia is a member of both bodies.

According to Dr Lindeque, the EU is Namibia's most important market with N$3 billion worth of exports annually, being N$2,4 billion of fish, N$300 million of beef and N$300 million of table grapes exported to the EU.

Independent trade expert Wallie Roux, who authored the booklet 'EPAs - the new Game of Divide and Rule', published by the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRi), said should the EPA negotiations result in the breakup of Sacu, "the blame should be squarely placed at the doorstep of the EU."

Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland, the so-called BLNS countries, and South Africa are Sacu members.

"Another concern for Namibia is that the EU introduced a last-minute and non-negotiable clause, the Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) clause, into the text of the interim EPA.

This means that should Namibia in future hold trade negotiations with other countries that might offer better market access than the EU, these better access conditions should automatically also apply to EU countries," Roux explained.

Other unresolved concerns raised by Namibia, which it wants better terms for, are that it should remove restrictions on cereal imports from the EU, and that it should over time abolish infant-industry protection for locally produced goods like dairy and pasta products.

LaRRi researcher Herbert Jauch said it was time local labour unions and non-governmental organisations raised their voices with regard to the EPAs.

"The purpose of this booklet is to inform the broader public on the pros and cons of these future trade deals and the impact on developing countries including Namibia in order to stimulate public debate.

NGOs and the labour movements should speak out on the EPAs," Jauch urged.

The booklet is available free of charge from LaRRi.

Link @ http://www.namibian.com.na/2008/August/marketplace/081D81D0CF.html

‘‘An Injury To One Market Is an Injury to All’’

Organisations forming the Southern African People's Solidarity Network (SAPSN) took part in a street protest in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Saturday August 16. Sandton is the commercial heart of South Africa where the Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state summit took place over the past weekend (Aug 16-17).

Activists carried banners saying ‘‘Stop EPAs now"; ‘‘An injury to one market is an injury to all’’; ‘‘No to bilateral EPAs’’; and ‘‘SADC not for sale’’.

SAPSN used the occasion of the SADC summit to raise their voices against the ongoing EPA talks by arranging a three-day People’s Solidarity Summit to run parallel with the SADC summit. This is the fourth summit hosted by SAPSN since 2000. SAPSN is a regional network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) strategising around resistance to the negative effects of globalisation on the South.

The summit was attended by about 500 delegates from the SADC region. The theme was centred on reclaiming and building a democratic SADC for peoples’ development through people's rights, unity and cooperation.

‘‘We demand that there not be any such externally imposed trade liberalisation between SADC and the European Union,’’ Thomas Deve, a policy analyst with the Africa office of the United Nations Millennium Campaign, told IPS. The Millennium Campaign is aimed at inspiring people to realise the Millennium Development Goals that countries committed themselves to.

SAPSN is opposed to ‘‘new generation issues’’ being included in the talks. These issues include services, government procurement and national treatment of companies. SAPSN is also objecting to the principle of reciprocity in trade preferences being adopted, given the ‘‘totally different sizes" of the economies of SADC and the European Union (EU).

A communiqué prepared at the end of the SAPSN summit laid down a number of issues that organisations would want regional governments to look at before continuing with the EPA negotiations.

The organisations said SADC countries must reunite and face the EU together in order to promote and protect the interest of the region.

The civic groups said the EPA negotiations have led to the disintegration of SADC. ‘‘We deplore the splitting up of SADC into two groups negotiating EPAs with EU. This is not only weakening them now but it is also placing at risk the future development co-operation and integration of the whole of SADC,’’ said Deve.

‘‘We are already facing drawn-out and complicated processes of coordinating and accommodating the needs of our people and countries of different sizes and levels of development,’’ he continued. ‘‘This will be made much more complicated and even contradicted by separate and differing external trade and trade-related agreements signed by members of SADC with EU.’’

‘‘SADC is not merely a trade region,’’ Dot Keet, a trade specialist with the Alternative Information Development Centre (AIDC) in Cape Town, South Africa, told delegates at the summit. ‘‘It must resolve internal differences within SADC and advance decisively with SADC developmental cooperation and agreements, according to SADC people's aims and interests.’’

AIDC is an NGO generating research to challenge the currently dominant global economic system.

She said the EPAs are a new ploy by European countries to ‘’re-colonise’’ Africa through subtle economic coercion.

‘‘We must stop the neo-liberal policies aimed at re-colonising Africa. We must not allow EU development cooperation aid to lure our countries into irreversible commitments that can place the entire future of SADC in jeopardy.’’

Keet said the EPAs hold far-reaching consequences for small farmers in SADC who face a barrage of problems such as perennial floods, lack of inputs and financial support -- yet they are supposed to compete with subsidised agricultural imports from EU.

Small traders running cross-border operations are being ousted by large retail chains and others from developed countries. This, Keet said, is resulting in massive losses of jobs as existing factories and industries are closing down.

Swaziland had to unilaterally sign an EPA. Mbabane made it clear that it had no option because it would have nowhere else to sell its sugar and citrus, two of the country's most prominent exports to Europe.

The same thing is believed to have happened to Namibia which only undertook to append its signature to the interim agreement at the last minute but under heavy protest. Namibia exports a significant amount of beef to the EU.

Keet also noted that the EU is not negotiating in good faith. It is dangling aid as a carrot to blackmail African governments.

She demanded that the signing of the EPAs should be stopped until African countries are allowed to negotiate without any threats of aid cuts if they chose not to sign. ‘‘SADC has been torn apart by EPAs because of the arm-twisting tactics of the EU, which has left countries receiving aid from Europe vulnerable.

‘‘We are saying that these EPAs must be stopped. The bilateral agreements that some SADC countries are entering into are a reflection of the sheer complacency of some of our SADC governments,’’ Keet argued.

She described the ongoing negotiations on EPAs as ‘‘a mockery of SADC free trade integration’’.

The SAPSN resolved to encourage members of parliament in the SADC region to interrogate the executive arms of their governments and to ask questions about trade liberalisation.

EPAs are a scheme to create a free trade area between the EU and ACP countries. The EU has punted the EPAs as necessary in the light of criticism that its non-reciprocal preferential trade agreements with the ACP states are incompatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

Initially EPAs were supposed to be region-to-region agreements between the EU and six regional groupings of ACP countries. However, SADC has been split during EPA negotiations. Some SADC governments negotiated outside the SADC framework and are preparing to introduce rapid and radical bilateral tariff reductions.

South Africa has refused to sign an EPA while Namibia has raised various objections before signing an interim agreement. Other SADC countries -- Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland -- have entered into interim EPAs with the EU. Mozambique, Mauritius, Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe have also entered into interim agreements with the EU. (END/2008)

Link @ http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43587

EPAs: the state of play

CARIFORUM Sept 2 signing of EPA is off

The latest news from the Caribbean is that the September 2 signing ceremony is off!! Ministers will be meeting in Barbados on September 8th to discuss the differing views on the EPA. By the 8th, the national consultations on the EPA in Guyana slated for Sept 5th & 6th are supposedly concluded.

Apparently Baldwin Spencer - the PM of Antigua and Barbuda and Chairman of Caricom - sent a letter to the French President indicating that the Caribbean was interested in having dialogue around concerns and around renegotiation.

The response from the French, not from the President himself but from the trade department, allegedly indicated that they would not support a renegotiation of the text .

Apparently, the tide has changed so much that countries and persons who had previously indicated that the signing of the Caribbean EPA was a done deal where now looking for opportunities to save face and back out .

Region advisor: EPA could benefit farmers

Atkins was addressing a four-day CaFAN workshop on agricultural trade facilitation at the Blue Horizon Hotel, Rockley, Christ Church, started on Monday.

"Are there areas that we do not feel comfortable with? Of course! Are there areas which the EU are not comfortable with? Yes! But if you think not signing the EPA is better for us, you are fooling yourself because the great WTO forced us and we are committed to the rules," he said.

Link @ http://www.nationnews.com/story/298671348499194.php

Delay can be costly

There is simply too much dithering and time wasting in this region, waiting on the improbability that perfect situations will come our way. This apparent yearning for Utopia raises the strong likelihood that the Caribbean could be left far behind while others grasp the opportunity to benefit, regardless of any structural imperfections that may exist in bilateral or multilateral trade arrangements.

Link @ http://www.nationnews.com/editorial/293072099820346.php

SA to revisit economic agreements with EU

South Africa and the European Union (EU) are expected to revisit the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) as President Thabo Mbeki heads to France for the SA-EU Summit.

"Issues on the agenda of discussions are expected to include, among others, Southern African Development Community [SADC]-EU economic partnership agreements," said the Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday.

The summit is taking place in the context of ongoing political dialogue under the auspices of the SA-EU Strategic Partnership and the SA-EU Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA).

It will be the first regular summit since the establishment of the partnership in May 2007, and is a continuation of discussions took place during six SA-EU Ministerial Troika meetings since November 2004.

EPAs are agreements entered into by each African country, committing to certain trade agreements with the EU, in an effort to create free trade

areas (FTAs).

While many African countries signed EPAs with the EU at the last African-EU Summit in December 2007, in Portugal, South Africa felt the trade agreements favoured Europe instead of it being a mutually beneficial to both.

Speaking at a recent briefing, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said South Africa has not yet signed an EPA because it was not conducive to SADC integration.

South Africa is likely to seek greater access to European markets while seeking some type of protection for domestic markets.

The minister argued that EPAs were not in line with World Trade Organisation (WTO) standards and therefore needed to be reworked as to benefit both parties.

Speaking in December last year, Mpahlwa highlighted that EPAs had already created a division within the SADC membership as some members had opted to negotiate the EPA as part of another grouping, the Eastern and Southern African (ESA) Group.

"We had hoped that, by forging a unified regional approach among the SADC EPA States to the negotiations with an important trade partner, we would strengthen trade relations within the region as well as the region's trade relations with the EU," he said.

The SADC EPA States had originally agreed that least developed countries (LDCs) should not be required to offer reciprocal opening of their markets to the EU.

"However, LDCs are now required to open up 80 percent of their market to EU exports," said the Minister.

Other issues on the agenda at the summit include environmental and climate change challenges, migration, food security, the WTO Doha Development Round of talks, and Africa and global security issues.

Link @ http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=138920

EU and Central Africa hold EPA technical negotiation round: news about services

From 9-17 July 2008 EU and Central African region's chief negotiators held technical EPA negotiation meetings in Brazzaville. The regional negotiator for Central Africa is CEMAC / CEEAC (Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale / Communauté Economique Des Etats De L'Afrique Centrale) including Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chad, Central African Republic, São Tomé e Príncipe. The EU and the Central Africa representatives discussed market access for goods, with, as a basis, the proposal by Central Africa to liberalise 71% of European imports over 20 years.

The parties made noticeable progress towards a joint draft text on market access for goods. Services were also discussed, as well as accompanying measures. Negotiators made progress towards the establishment of the "FORAPE" (EPA regional fund), and they discussed the reform of the Development Bank of Central African States (BDEAC) which will operate the FORAPE. Next negotiation round is scheduled from 29/09 to 07/10 in Brussels. It will be followed by a round from 27/10 to 01/11 in Central Africa and, if possible, by a ministerial meeting in November.

Link @ http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/bilateral/regions/acp/index_en.htm

ECOWAS favours a sub-regional EPA with Europe

The Heads of State and Government of the countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have expressed their support for an «effective and sustainable» sub-regional Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.

Link @ http://brussels.cta.int/?id=4908

Technical Epa negotiation meetings with West Africa take place in Brussels, 28-31 july 2008

Negotiators from the EU and West African region met in Brussels from 28-31 July 2008 to discuss progress towards concluding a full-fledged EPA. Regional Negotiator for West Africa is CEDEAO / ECOWAS (Communauté Economique des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest / Economic Community of West African States) in co-operation with UEMOA (Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine): these include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Negotiators achieved progress on trade in goods, in particular trade defence instruments (TDI), sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT), as well as trade facilitation (TF). Discussions on rules of origin were also launched. Market access and development co-operation were also on the table. Next round will take place in Ouagadougou at technical level on 20-23 October and at senior official level on 24 October.

EPA: Aligning gender sensitivity with mainstream trade policy

The President of TNI, Mrs. Hauwa Mustapha, stated that “Gender issues are conspicuously absent from the current EPA negotiation. There is no systemic screening for social and gender impacts or compliance with international agreements such as the CEDAW. [..],” she added.

More importantly, there is need to slow down EU‘s pressure so that more balanced negotiations could be achieved. On the extreme case, some participants were of the opinion that it would be dangerous to go negotiating with EU in unequal partner basis, hence EPA should be scrapped. ”What percentage of our products was involved? Not up to 10 per cent. I suggest Nigeria should absolutely turn its back on EPA, like Cuba did. If EU has concern for Africa, it should fund development programmes and encourage economic growth.”

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200808035271789

France would push for a “food exception” at the international level

“EPAs should be linked to other issues. I will propose to the EC a reorientation of the negotiation in order to take more into account Development issues, MDGs, Food crisis and agricultural issues.”

“I advocate for an exception for agriculture”

“We would like to give a lot of flexibilities, both on the percentage of liberalization or the transition period. If we want to be coherent with our development policies, we can’t be as strict as today”

http://discours.vie-publique.fr/notices/083002327.html

Fears at talks as Europe pushes for free trade in services

Kenya’s civil society has over the years raised the red flag over the intentions of the instigators and the possible impact on African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states. Reciprocal Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) were initially supposed to be in place last year.

Cariforum, the Caribbean cluster, will on September 2 be the first of the former European colonies to thumb a full EPA at Bridgetown, Barbados.

Nearer home in Madagascar, the EPA negotiations between eastern and southern Africa (Esa) countries and the European Union will enter the most critical stage this week as the two partners seek consensus on what is referred to in trade-speak as trade in services.

The meeting runs from Wednesday to Friday in the East African island. Talks on trade in services are sensitive because there are fears across Africa that they are meant to compel countries to free up trade in services such as banking and telecoms in return for access to the heavily protected European market. Some feel African countries are not ready for reciprocity-based services liberalisation.

South Africa has taken a hard stance on trade-related issues, more so trade in services. Her position is that there is no legal obligation contained in the Cotonou pact — which on June 23, 2000 extended preferences spelt out under the 1975 Lome Agreement — to broaden the EPA negotiations to include trade in services. Instead of binding commitments, South Africa is only in favour of concluding cooperative arrangements.

Kenya, alongside 76 ACP countries currently enjoy preferential access for their agricultural produce into the EU market without being required to allow in duty-free European imports.

However, this preference to ACP countries by EU is not compatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. As a result, EPA was proposed as a tool to appease the WTO without hurting the ACP-EU relationship.

The new trade agreement should be signed by the end of the year otherwise the countries will lose the duty-free access to the EU market. But recently, the EU agreed to extend the Generalised System of Preference, which would much soften the blow of duty escalation.

South Africa is negotiating with the EU under Southern Africa Development Community configuration while Kenya is under Eastern and Southern Africa, or Esa. Other Esa members are Burundi, Comoros, DR Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

South Africa gets support from Zambia’s former Commerce, Trade and Industry minister Dipak Patel. In a report titled ACP/EU Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs): Boom or Doom for Zambia? Mr Patel emphasises that Article XXIV of GATT (predecessor of WTO) only concerns the liberalisation of merchandise trade.

“Therefore, nothing in the WTO would require EPAs to cover trade in services and trade related disciplines on investment, competition, government procurement or intellectual property,” says the report released in March 2007.

Some of key wish-list points for the ACP in the EPA are enhanced development assistance, aid for trade, level playing field, removal of agricultural subsidies and simple and beneficial rules of origin.

Esa negotiations to date have involved discussions between countries on development aspects (including how to reduce supply-side constraints to production and reduce the cost of doing business) and trade aspects (including a tariff phase-down and how this could be done by countries that are not yet in a customs union).

Talks have also touched on how one can address food security issues within the context of an EPA, trade in services issues, and whether to include the so-called new issues or Singapore issues of investment, trade facilitation, competition policy and government procurement.

The Singapore issues, earlier proposed under the discredited Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agreement, were central to the collapse of the WTO talks in Doha 2001.

“But here a word of caution for ACP — if, as it looks likely at present, the majority of LDCs [least developed countries] accept ‘WTO-plus’ provisions in the EPAs in areas such as services, competition and investment policies, it will be very hard to sustain resistance to such measures at the WTO,” Mr Patel observes.

Ms Joy Kategekwa of South Centre, an intergovernmental organisation of developing countries, says that Esa countries are not ready for reciprocal-based services liberalisation with EU.

Rather EU should avail financial and technical assistance for meeting capacity constraints in Esa countries. Indeed, EU has committed itself to enhancing financing but critics charge that the net effect of the said expansion is nil.

She observes that for Esa countries, services and trade contribute an average of 50 per cent to gross domestic product.

Esa countries export only 0.5 per cent of world exports in commercial services, according the WTO figures, slightly more than South Africa alone and slightly less than the share of Egypt.

Europe is Africa’s main trading partner for commercial services — more than half went to Europe in 2003. Africa is a minor trading partner for the EU with 6.6 per cent of imports sourced from Africa in 2003. Important sectors are transport, travel, tourism.

“EU is obligated to strengthen ACP capacity in supply of services especially, labour, business, distribution, finance, tourism, culture and construction and related engineering services to enhance competitiveness,” Ms Kategekwa says in her Services in EPA Negotiations: Implications for Esa Countries.

Link @ http://www.nation.co.ke/business/-/996/457180/-/item/0/-/v6onf6/-/index.html

European Union agrees to maintain trade preferences for developing countries

This decision will allow the EU to maintain preferential access to its market for 176 developing countries. The renewed preference system will be updated and improved, ensuring that GSP is targeted at those countries that need it most. GSP provides real economic value to developing countries, with €57 billion worth of trade under the scheme in 2007.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said: "The continuation of GSP will ensure stability and predictability for beneficiaries and traders in the EU and developing countries. GSP is a vital tool of our pro-development EU trade policy."

As a result of re-calculations to reflect the evolution of trade, preferences for specific product groups will be re-established for six beneficiary countries of GSP (Algeria, India, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa and Thailand). Preferences will be suspended for one country, Vietnam, for Section XII products (footwear and some other products). These adjustments are triggered automatically when a country's performance on the EU market goes above or below a certain threshold. This procedure follows strict rules, and helps to ensure that the benefits of GSP preferences are targeted at the countries that need them most. Suspension of preferences, called "graduation", reflects the fact that a particular country is competitive in the EU market for the products in question.

Alongside the standard GSP scheme, the EU also offers a special incentive arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance, known as GSP+. GSP+ offers additional preferences to support vulnerable developing countries in their ratification and implementation of relevant international conventions on human and labour rights, environmental protection, and good governance. Interested countries have until 31 October this year to apply in order to benefit for GSP+ preferences from January 2009.

Everything But Arms, the EU's open-ended duty-free, quote-free regime for Least-Developed Countries, which also operates under the GSP Regulation, is also maintained.

Background

The GSP is an autonomous trade arrangement through which the EU provides non-reciprocal preferential access to the EU market to 176 developing countries and territories. In 2007, developing countries exported €57 billion worth of goods under GSP, with a nominal duty loss for the EU of €2.5 billion.

At present, 14 beneficiary countries receive the additional preferences offered under the GSP+ incentive arrangement. These preferences will lapse at the end of the year and both existing and potential new beneficiaries meeting the applicable criteria will need to apply before 31 October 2008 if they wish to receive GSP+ treatment from January 2009 . A special arrangement for the 50 least-developed countries (LDCs), known as the "Everything But Arms" (EBA) initiative, provides the most favourable treatment of all, granting the LDCs "duty-free and quota-free" access to the EU market.

For further background on GSP and the new Regulation please see the MEMO 08/524.

Link @ MEMO 08/524

EU "Rushing" EPAs Lest Continent's States Change Their Minds

"With a view to speeding up the signing of all interim agreements in 2008 we suggest, exceptionally, to move away from the traditional way of establishing authentic texts in all official languages at the time of signature while agreeing to adopt them at a later stage," it adds. According to the document, the Commission is concerned that translating the bulky interim EPAs into the Union's 23 official languages will cause delays. The Commission has adopted the position that, without the EPAs, a trade regime is perpetuated with the ACP countries that is not compliant with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

"The Commission has estimated that if we follow the generally accepted approach prior to signature, the process could well take us past Easter 2009. Such delays would have repercussions regarding WTO notification and legal security," it says. But beyond the time and effort needed to translate thousands of pages of trade agreements into 23 languages, it appears the Commission has a more far-reaching concern.

Translating the interim EPAs "may also increase political risks that certain ACP countries change their mind and decide not to sign the interim EPAs", the document explains.

By cutting short the time European Union (EU) members have to debate in their national languages whether they support EPAs, the Commission hopes that the agreements will be signed by the European Council before African, Caribbean and Pacific countries are able to amend their position.

The European Council consists of the heads of state or governments of the European Union and the president of the Commission.

Should the European Council indeed decide to sign the EPAs in their current form, the Commission would then be able to notify these interim agreements to the WTO. Once notified, EPAs would be much harder to renegotiate for ACP countries.

(…)

Link to http://allafrica.com/stories/200807280004.html

Let’s mobilize in September

Meetings of the Bureau and the Standing Committees
The meetings of the Bureau of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and the three Standing Committees (Committee on Political Affairs, Committee on Economic Development, Finance and Trade and Committee on Social Affairs and the Environment) will take place between 9 and 11 September 2008 in Brussels (Belgium). This will be during the European Parliament's Africa Week when there will be a number of special events taking place as part of the Year of Intercultural Dialogue. The Bureau will adopt the Preliminary Draft Agenda and Work Programme for the 16th session to be held in Port Moresby ( Papua New Guinea) from 25 to 28 November 2008. This will be followed by the second Regional Meeting of the JPA - Pacific Region - to be held in Vanuatu from 29 November to 1 December.

Let’s take in account that the Committee on Economic Development, Finance and Trade will discuss about the EDF: priorities and funding. Rumors are going on about the use that Europe will do to keep pressures on the ACP countries who refused till now to subscribe or to initiall an EPA. Several minutes are available on the website to think about.

For further official details NGOs can contact francis.cole@europarl.europa.eu

ESF and the EPA Campaign
The European Social Forum will take place in Malmö in Sweden from 18 to 21 September. The Farmers meeting will take place during the weekend of 20-21 September in Anecy in France. This is a alternative gathering preceding the EU informal Agricultural Council where the reform of the European Common Agricultural policy will be discussed.

Link to: http://www.esf2008.org/

Stop EPAs Campaign events
Since 27 September is a Saturday and the MEPS will not be in Brussels the week before and after. The Stop Epa coalition decided to organise a demonstration/media stunt in Strasbourg where the European Parliament Plenary will be in session in the week before 27 September.

This action will take place on Tuesday 23 September. The coalition will invite representatives from ACP civil society organisations to join them in Strasbourg and then, if possible to follow us to our capitals for national actions towards national MEPs.

This would mean that ACP representatives who are invited to come to Europe the weekend and week before for the ESF in Sweden or the Farmers meeting in France, could be invited to join the stunt in Strasbourg as well.

Link to: http://groups.google.com/group/que-alternativas/browse_thread/thread/938386d261975cd2/7fd9d00ed658c7f2?hl=en&q=ACP+EU+trade