Interaction
Slovenia marks respect for Cotonou
It’s not easy to assess an individual European Union (EU) country’s contribution to relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations during its six-month turn in the rotating EU Presidency chair. There’s always an element of ‘business as usual’. As Slovenia, in charge since 1 January 2008, hands over to France (1 July – 31 December), we look at how one of the smallest and newest EU Member States, with no national tradition of development policy, has made its mark and added to its own expertise in the process.
Victor Borges (right), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Capo Verde at EU Troika meeting, 27/5/2008, with Andrej Ster, Slovenian Secretary of State, Foreign Affairs (left).
© Council of the European Union
It’s been a hefty workload for Slovenia’s small team of national development experts just to make sure that everything remains on track, says Uroš Mahkovec, ACP counsellor at Slovenia’s Representation to the EU. This includes moving ahead with talks on turning initialled ‘interim’ Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) – the ACP-EU free trade agreements – into ‘full’ ones by the end of the year and ironing out the remaining wrinkles in the legal texts with CARIFORUM* partners for the signature of their full regional EPA at the end of July 2008 in Barbados. Forty-two ACP states – mostly Least Developed Countries (LDCs) – have yet to sign up for any EPA.
Follow-up to the Africa-EU Lisbon summit and ensuring momentum in attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), on the agenda of the EU Summit in June 2008, were other Presidency priorities. And Slovenia’s State Secretary of Foreign Affairs is now a familiar face following a run of bi-lateral ‘troika’ between former, current and forthcoming EU presidencies including Nigeria, Cape Verde and South Africa.
Support from the two preceding presidencies of Germany followed by Portugal, has been invaluable to Slovenia, stresses Uroš Mahkovec. This ‘trio’ of countries drew up a joint development strategy spanning 18 months (January 2007-June 2008). Slovenia’s special input was getting EU member states to pay more attention in policy-making to the effects of armed conflict, in developing nations, on women and children.. Two Slovenian Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs); Together, the Regional Centre for the Psychosocial well-being of children specialised in psychological counselling and the International Trust Fund (ITF), involved in de-mining projects are already globally recognised for their work experience gained in their backyard of the Balkans.
Uroš Mahkovec says that being a small country in the EU brings flexibility: “Everyone knows that there is no huge national agenda in the background.” He points at the progress made in advancing Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA). Slovenia arranged a meeting of 30 ‘key’ ACP Ministers in its capital, Ljubljana, to discuss EPAs. He feels that Nigeria, for example, is now less hostile to the idea of an EPA whilst respecting the country’s fears of fiscal losses.
Softening
This “softening” towards EPAs was signalled at a 12-13 June joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers meeting in Addis Ababa where a joint resolution was agreed to by both sides; “… a commitment to make every effort to ensure that all regions conclude World Trade Organisation (WTO) - compatible full EPAs with due regard for ACP circumstances.” Uroš Mahkovec says the drafting of this resolution was a success in itself. It was the first time in 33 years of such meetings that a joint ACP-EU resolution had been agreed. The text also covered an enhanced focus on agriculture in ACP-EU policies and need for action by both partners if Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved by 2015.
“104 countries (77 ACP and 27 EU) are almost more than half of most multi-lateral fora. If this could be achieved in other fields such as the WTO, it’s quite a good precedent.” As we talk with Uroš Mahkovec, there is a respect for the sort of solidarity that can be achieved through the ACP-EU Cotonou Convention (2000-2020).
As an EU state since May 2004, Slovenia is one of twelve first-time contributors to EU-funded aid programmes for ACP nations under the six-year €22.682bn 10th European Development Fund (EDF) which runs from 2008 to 2013 and comes on stream from 1 July 2008. Slovenia will contribute €40.827M. This is a big amount for a small country and is prompting internal reorganisation of its administration with plans to set up a specialist agency for development. Slovenia’s only diplomatic presence is in Cairo. But there’s an embracing of the new opportunities of Cotonou, such as opportunities for Slovenian businesses and individuals.
For Slovenia, the recent ‘troika’ mission to Fiji, 19-20 June, to assess the political situation and Fiji’s commitment to mount new parliamentary elections in the wake of the military takeover in December 2006 by Commander Frank Bainimarama, demonstrates the power of dialogue enshrined in article 96 of Cotonou. The ousting of democratically-elected Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, was deemed to constitute a breach of the ‘essential elements’ of the Cotonou agreement: human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law (see separate article on Fiji in ‘Round up’).
