02.04.2008
A group of activists representing thousands of European and African civil society organizations presented the message "Brussels made EPAs will not fit ACPs" to the European development Commissioner Louis Michel on 18th of March at his arrival to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Ljubljana.
One of the main hotly-debated issues on the agenda at the Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Ljubljana, Slovenia this week is the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) covering the liberalisation of goods and agricultural products. Out of a total of 78 ACP countries, to date only 15 Caribbean states have initialled full EPAs. A further 20 African and Pacific countries have agreed to partial agreements. The EPAs were concluded in haste and under a great deal of pressure from the European Commission and are not in favour of ACP countries, which are exposed to unfair and harsh competition. If the ACP countries had not signed up to the EPAs, they would have been subjected to much higher tariffs.
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