Seychelles to host East Africa meeting of ACP-EU assembly
|
A wide range of subjects concerning East Africa – including fisheries, piracy and climate change – will be in focus this week when Seychelles hosts a regional meeting of the African, Caribbean and Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly. The 15th East Africa meeting of the assembly will be held at Le Méridien Barbarons Hotel tomorrow and Thursday, July 14 and 15. During the meeting delegates will take part in a workshop on fisheries and development and will discuss other issues affecting the East Africa region such as peace and security – including governance and human rights – and the status of the Chagos archipelago. Other topics for discussion will be the regional integration and cooperation processes in East Africa, where the focus will be on the roles of the East African Community, the Indian Ocean Commission and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, as well as the Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU, regional/country strategy papers and the role of national parliaments. Representatives from African organisations such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Legislative Assembly, the African Union and the Chagos Refugees’ Group will be present to lead the meeting’s working sessions. It was at the 18th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Luanda, Angola, last year that it was agreed this meeting would be held in Seychelles following a motion tabled earlier by the chairman of the National Assembly’s International Affairs Committee, Waven William. Seychelles is a member of the ACP-EU committees on economic development, finance and trade. |