Europarlementariërs willen meer controle op onderhandelingen over economische partnerschapsovereenkomst tussen EU en ACP-landen (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Europees Parlement (EP), gepubliceerd op dinsdag 23 november 2010, 13:41.

MEPs want the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly to monitor closely the ongoing negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements between EU and ACP countries, which are intended to open up markets on both sides. This is just one of the recommendations in Tuesday's European Parliament resolution on the work done by the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in 2009.

EU-Africa summit

The upcoming EU-Africa summit to be held in Libya on 29 and 30 November is another topic mentioned in the resolution, which deplores the fact that "the Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) was not properly consulted during the drafting of the Joint EU-Africa Strategy and hopes that the Assembly will be actively involved in the implementation of the strategy."

Financial transaction tax to finance development

Turning to the impact of the financial crisis on the ACP countries, MEPs argue that the JPA should explore additional, innovative sources of development funding, such as an international financial transaction tax.

European Development Fund should be part of the EU budget

The resolution also recalls Parliament's longstanding demand for the European Development Fund (EDF) to be incorporated into the EU budget "to increase the consistency, transparency and effectiveness of development cooperation policy and guarantee democratic scrutiny thereof."

The EDF is funded by Member States and has its own financial rules.  The tenth 5-year period of the EDF covers 2008-2013. It has an overall budget of €22,682 million, of which €21,966 million is for the ACP countries.

Background

The Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) is the parliamentary forum for open, democratic and in-depth dialogue between the European Union and the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Today's resolution is the EP's annual review of the assembly's work.

The 20th Session of the JPA will be held in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) from 2 to 4 December 2010.

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