The Courier

Sadly, some key names were indisposed or could not be reached while others like Lorenzo Natali (European Commissioner from 1985 to 1989), Tiéoulé Mamadou Konaté (the first Secretary-General of the ACP Group, 1975-1980), and Isabelle Bassong (Cameroon's Ambassador to the European institutions from 1988 to 2006), are no longer with us.

As you can imagine, the list of people who have played either an ad hoc role or a key part throughout the years is a very long one and all the Courier can do is offer an overview. So let’s begin by naming one of the founders: the legendary head of protocol and head of the press office for the ACP Group, Alpha Niaka Bary. Sengalese, Niaka Bary was famed both for his speed at solving a whole host of problems as well as for his amazing collection of walking sticks! His fellow countryman, Seydina Oumar Sy, former Ambassador and a Minister for Foreign Trade and Affairs, was involved in all the talks on the various Lomé Conventions. From the same era, and heading the ACP negotiating team during the first Lomé Convention, the Nigerian Ambassador, Olu Sanu was noted for his dogged determination.

Royalty had its place too, with the House of Windsor’s Princess Anne making her mark on the cooperation process during the September 1985 meeting in Inverness. There she urged the ACP-EEC Joint Assembly to do more than just talk about aid and to make it effective. Leading political figures such as the French Home Affairs Minister, Michel Poniatowski, also made a significant contribution. On the eve of Lomé III, in his role as Chair of the European Parliament's Development Committee, he made a call for a renewal of the cooperation policy.

The architects of Lomé also include Edgar Pisani (European Commissioner for Development, 1981-1984), the father of the political dialogue with the ACP countries: the focus on rural development and food security was a reflection of his earlier experience with France's Ministry of Agriculture. History will also record Lorenzo Natali's appointment as Commissioner for Development in 1985, ending what appeared to be a French monopoly of this post. He was followed by Manuel Marin (1989) of Spain, João de Deus Pinheiro (1994) of Portugal, Poul Nielson (1999) of Denmark and Louis Michel (2004) of Belgium.

Dieter Frisch
The European negotiator during the Lomé Conventions

As the European Commission's Director-General for Development from 1983 to 1993, Dieter Frisch, an economic science (Bonn University) and modern languages graduate (Heidelberg university), joined the European enterprise in 1958. After leaving the Commission, Frisch continued to fuel the development debate as one of the founders of Transparency International, alongside with his German compatriot and former World Bank official, Peter Eigen, that campaigns against major corruption and the detrimental impact this has on development. He claims that one of the key lessons to be drawn from the Lomé Conventions between the European Community (as it was at the time) and the ACP countries was that these were break-through pacts that launched a dynamic process leading to later agreements with the Mediterranean, Latin American and Asian countries.

Ghebray Berhane
“the ACP countries have to seek another aspiration”

Secretary-General of the ACP Group from 1990 to 1995, this Sorbonne doctor of law had 14 years of experience in EU-ACP cooperation as Ethiopia's Ambassador to the European institutions from 1978 to 1987 where he negotiated the Lomé III and Lomé IV Conventions.

And his involvement with development work continues as the head of an Addis Ababa-based firm offering legal advice and consultancy services.The firm has provided expert knowledge to the Ethiopian Privatization Agency and the Commonwealth Development Corporation, while operating in the field of arbitration on behalf of the World Food Programme and the EU.

Ghebray Berhane believes that while the ACP regions are committed to signing individual economic partnership agreements with the EU, the time is ripe for the ACP countries to find "a new momentum, another aspiration". He says the ACP countries would be well advised to face up to the major challenges that cannot be addressed on a regional basis, such as climate change or the major health issues.

Claude Cheysson
Father of Lomé and Stabex

A former Foreign Minister of France (1981 to 1984), Claude Cheysson is one of the architects of the EU's cooperation policy. In his capacity as European Commissioner for Development, he inaugurated the first Lomé Convention (1975), which signalled a radical change in cooperation. One key element was the contractual dimension ensuring that concessions granted could no longer be withdrawn.

A further example was Lomé being regarded as a gamble on the ACP partners' insistence of how their cooperation with the European Union is prioritised. What is more, Lomé I was the first international cooperation agreement to usher in a compensatory finance scheme to stabilise the earnings of the ACP countries from their farm exports to the EU: Stabex. None of these decisions were surprising to a man who, ever since he joined the French diplomatic service at the end of the Second World War, understood the former colonies' desire for independence. An adviser to the Vietnamese President in 1952, Claude Cheysson was also a keen supporter of Algerian independence. And he returned from 1985 to 1988, as European Commissioner for Mediterranean Policy and North-South Relations, to nurture a vibrant Lomé spirit and provide a further proactive push for cooperation with other countries.

Edwin Carrington
The pragmatist

The Tobagian economist Edwin Carrington spent 14 years with the ACP Secretariat, as Assistant Secretary-General (1976-1985) and as Secretary-General (1985-1990). Regarded as one of the experts on the Lomé Convention he was involved in all the negotiations. Later as Secretary-General of Caricom, from 1992 he has been able to keep close track of the evolving cooperation with the EU.

We have no space here to sum up the hours and hours of speeches Edwin Carrington has made on this subject but we should record the call he made (coinciding with the January 1982 issue of the Courier) for "an increasingly realistic assessment of what cooperation has the potential to offer. In a nutshell, the agreements by themselves do not offer any easy solutions to the woes of the ACP countries, even if they provide the sole framework for this type of cooperation. It is up to the ACP countries to discover the areas they can benefit from and as they themselves help to set the priorities they have to be regarded as bearing a responsibility…”

Michel Rocard
The taboo-breaker

Known for his commitment to the campaign against the war in Algeria, and as a supporter of New Caledonia's right to self-determination, Michel Rocard has continued to wage a fight within the Joint Parliamentary Assembly's (JPA) Development Committee and as member of the European Parliament’s Development Committee in a bid to lift one or two taboos or barriers that he believes get in the way of today’s reality. These include trafficking in arms, precious stones and human beings being confused, under the heading of “ informal” trade, within economies of the ACP countries.Another taboo, he claims, is the "misleading and dangerous idea" that "the key to development in Africa is having its products gain access to markets in the developed countries.” This, even though, “two-thirds of African countries have nothing to export and the oil revenue being earmarked for development in the other countries has failed to deliver anything". Rocard also continues to stress the need to protect food agriculture owing to the decline of food self-sufficiency in Africa.

Louis Michel
Turns the spotlight on infrastructure

At the helm of Europe's Development Cooperation policy since 2004, Commissioner Louis Michel, a former Belgian Foreign Minister , has already made his mark on relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partners. First and foremost, under his leadership the European Commission has boosted the level of direct aid to ACP States' budgets to create a greater sense of ownership and a bigger sense of responsibility in administering EU-sponsored development programmes. Moreover, it is under his guidance and that of his colleague, Peter Mandelson, European Commissioner for Trade, that Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are due to be concluded with ACP during 2008. These agreements should boost regional trade, attract much-needed investment whilst taking into account development needs of the ACP countries. A key element of Louis Michel's policy to reach the Millennium Development Goals has been to focus on support to infrastructure, particularly in Africa, so as to give ACP partners the means to become competitive and generate wealth for their citizens.

Giovanni Bersani
Building-bridges between the EU and ACP

Law graduate, activist against Nazism and fascism in Italy, after World War II, Giovanni Bersani was among the founders of the Italian Movement of Christian workers, vice-president of the ACLI and Italian parliamentarian for seven terms. He was undersecretary of the Ministry of Work during De Gasperi’s government in 1952-1953.

As a Member of the European Parliament from 1960, he was especially involved in external relations, particularly with Africa, to develop a European policy of peace through strong relations, towards the end of the sixties. The aim of his political activity was to affirm Europe, according to the spirit of the founding fathers, as a civil and moral power rather than a military force.
 
He was then vice-president of the Development Committee and member of the External Economic Relations Committee of the European Parliament. At first he joined the Christian Democratic Party, subsequently moving to the European People’s Party parliamentarian group. From 1976 to 1989, he was President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly created by the Lomé Convention and, at the end of his mandate he was appointed President Ad honorem for life. Since the 1980’s he has devoted his political life to relationships with non-EU Mediterranean countries. In April 1989 he called upon the first Mediterranean Parliamentarian Assembly for “a total cooperation”. This assembly approved a permanent plan of cooperation in which a Joint Parliamentarian Assembly plays a central role, as was the case in the Lomé conventions.

Glenys Kinnock
A leading light

Former teacher Glenys Kinnock was elected to the European Parliament in 1994 and re-elected in 1999 and 2004 as one of the MEPs representing Wales. She is a member of the European Parliament’s Development and Cooperation Committee and Co-President of the Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) ensuring that its agenda is lively and to the point. As a fellow JPA member noted at the Wiesbaden JPAs in June 2007: “Our meetings would just not be the same without her.” President of the Non Governmental Organisation, One World Action and Patron of the Drop the Debt Campaign, her development activities extend beyond Parliamentary fora.

All JPA members remember her vibrant plea in favour of the Millennium Development Goals at the November 2006 session in Barbados where she urged both the ACP countries and the European to focus on essential public services, arguing that “the market alone cannot and should not take over these vital tasks.” She also insisted that “aid has to be more predictable, flexible and timely so that governments can plan and spend on health and education in a concerted and transparent way.” On trade, she then stressed that Europe must have in mind that it “is negotiating EPAs with an ACP group which includes some of the most vulnerable economies in the World”. Finally, she concluded that “none of us will escape the effects of climate change but it is the poorest of us who will disproportionately pay the highest price.”

Jean-Robert Goulongana
A conciliator at heart

When Jean-Robert Goulongana was appointed head of the ACP Secretariat, in the countdown to the signing of the future Lomé Convention, many observers had deep misgivings about the Group's ability to see through certain changes in the cooperative relationship with the EU. Equally, others did not hold out much hope for much cooperation between ACP countries at the end of the trade talks that were to take place.

However, Goulongana was quick to size up the situation, realising that the group's strength was conditional upon the abilities of the Secretariat, which itself was down to its stand-alone status and above all its depoliticisation. Above all, the Secretary General’s role is to serve the states and supervise the group and Goulongana took on this task, rallying flagging spirits whenever there was a risk of losing momentum.

While he might describe himself as a servant, he is, in reality, more of a conductor - the musicians play and he sets the tempo. His skills as a negotiator, reconciler and facilitator have helped the Group out of some tight corners and allowed the ACP-EU cooperation process to clear one or two hurdles, to say the least. He has fiercely argued the case of the ACP countries, yet never failed to pay close attention to their partner's viewpoints.

Goulongana brought these conciliatory skills to bear in several areas, including the "political dialogue" between the EU and the ACP countries on human rights, the EPA negotiations, and the WTO consultations. Time and again he has proved to be a master in managing the follow-up to negotiations between often disparate parties.

Sir John Kaputin
Handling change

Appointed Secretary General of the ACP Group of States on March 1, 2005, Sir John Kaputin is a lawyer with a lengthy track record of political service as an MP in his home country for 30 years (Papua New Guinea from 1972 to 2002). A knowledgeable expert on the finer points of ACP-EU cooperation, he has been involved in the Lomé Conventions and the Cotonou Agreement since 1978 and was Joint President of the ACP-EU Joint Assembly from 1995 to 1997.

Sir John joined his government early in his political career and stayed almost constantly from 1973 to 2002 in a series of ministerial posts (Justice, Planning and Development, Finance, Mines, Energy, Foreign Affairs) and eventually as Minister for International Financial Institutions.