Work in Parliament Graça Carvalho co-chairs the JPA Economic Committee meeting

Maria da Graça Carvalho, as co-president of the Economic Development, Finance and Trade Committee of ACP-UE Joint Parliamentary Assembly co-chaired the meeting of the ACP-UE Joint Parliamentary Assembly that was held yesterday and today in the European Parliament.

The items on the agenda were namely, the designation of the co-rapporteurs, followed by an exchange of views on the impact of debt on development financing in the ACP countries; the next report for the AC¨P-UE Joint Parliamentary Meeting; an exchange of views on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Sectoral Initiative on Cotton;  the presentation of the draft report on budget support as a mode of delivering development aid to the ACP countries; the state of play of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations and implementation; and finally the European Commission's follow-up of the resolution on technology transfer adopted in Kinshasa. 

Agenda of the meeting:

1. Adoption of agenda (AP100.899) 
2. Approval of minutes of the meeting of 30 November 2010 in Kinshasa (DRC) (AP100.890)  
3. Co-Chairs' announcements 
4. Budgetary support as a means of delivering Official Development Assistance (ODA) in ACP countries: 
   1. Co-rapporteurs: Mr Enrique Guerrero Salom and Mr Wilkie Rasmussen (Cook Islands) 
   2. Consideration of draft report
   3. Exchange of views with Sibylle Koenig, Action for Global Health
5. L'initiative sectorielle sur le coton à l'OMC:
   1. Echange de vues avec Jean-Luc Senou, représentant résident de la Commission de l'Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine (UEMOA) à Bruxelles, et Nicolas Imboden, directeur exécutif d'IDEAS Centre
6. State of play of EPA process: negotiations and implementation
   1. Exchange of views with the European Commission 
7. Follow-up by the Commission on the resolution adopted by the Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Kinshasa on "Post-Copenhagen: technology transfer, new technologies, and technical capacity building in the ACP States"  
8. The impact of debt on development financing in ACP countries:
   1. Appointment of co-rapporteurs  

   2. Exchange of views with Carlos Braga, Director for Europe of the World Bank, and Núria Molina, Director of the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad)

9. Any other business

10. Date and place of next meeting