Relations with the European Union

Joyce van Genderen-Naar

22/04/2012

Opinión

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To date 26 Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) outside Europe are still constitutionally linked to four European Union Member States: Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Only recently Saint Barthélémy (St. Barth) joined the group as OCT No. 26, changing its status from French outermost region to French OCT. This was made possible by a decision of the European Council at the request of the French Government in October 2010. A provision of the Lisbon Treaty allows the European Council to change the EU status of a Danish, Dutch or French territory on the initiative of the member state concerned.

The 26 Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) are: Anguilla (UK), Bermuda (UK), Aruba (NL), British Virgin Islands (UK), Bonaire (NL), Curaçao (NL), Saba, Sint-Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), Cayman islands (UK), Turks & Caicos islands (UK), Montserrat (UK), New Caledonia (FR), French Polynesia (FR), Wallis & Futuna (FR), Pitcairn (UK), British Indian Ocean Territory (UK), Mayotte (FR), St Pierre & Miquelon (FR), Greenland (DK), British Antarctic Territory (UK), Falkland islands (UK), Saint Barthelemy/St. Barth (FR), South Georgian and South Sandwich Islands (UK), St Helena (UK), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR).

The list of OCTs was longer and included countries and territories that have become independent sovereign countries, most of themAfrican, Caribbean and Pacific States united since 1975 in the ACP Group of States (79 ACP States). They were all once colonies and later overseas countries and territories associated with the European Community with the purpose of establishing close economic relations between them and the Community as a whole and of promoting economic and social development through apreferential trade system and development fund (European Development Fund/ EDF).

ACP and OCT went separate ways, ACP as independent countries and OCTs as non-sovereign countries. ACP-EU cooperation and EU-OCT cooperation are about trade (rules of origin and trade arrangements), sustainable development, regional cooperation/integration.

The EU provides financial support for each country’s development strategy (set out in a 'single programming document'). Total EU funding for all OCTs for 2007-2013 is €286m, through the European Development Fund (EDF). The OCTs can also get funding under European programmes (e.g. research, education and training, innovation and competitiveness, culture and media, etc.). Furthermore, there is a dialogue between EU and OCT through the annual OCT-EU forum (Commission, all OCTs and all the Member States to which they are linked), regular trilateral meetings (Commission, all OCTs and the Member States to which they are linked), and partnership meetings (Commission, individual OCT and related Member States). The OCTs are not directly subject to EU law.

However there is no forum for dialogue between ACP and OCTs and they are not attending each other’s meetings in and outside Brussels, despite all the programs for ACP-OCT regional cooperation. The position of ACP is that they are willing to cooperate with OCTs, but it should not be at the expense of ACP, and OCTs should use their own envelope.

What is keeping ACP and OCT apart, when they have so much in common: historical and cultural ties and a ‘special relationship’ with the EU? Is it because OCT nationals are in principle EU citizens, who have a special "associate" status and receive financial transfers from their related Member States? In contrast to the ACP-EU relationship, that is becoming less special due to less trade preferences, more regional economic partnership agreements, more South-South cooperation and the ending of the ACP-EU Agreement in 2020. Also, is it because the OCTs are covered by a separate legal base in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU), and the ACP States are deleted from the Treaty?

The EU-OCT cooperation is also going to change soon. A new legal framework will replace the EU-OCT 2001 Overseas Association Decision (OAD) that expires on 31 December 2013. The new cooperation will have an impact on the OCTs: no more classical development cooperation, a more reciprocal partnership, more focus on sustainable development, climate change, sustainable energy supply. The future association will no longer require a relationship between donor and aid partner and has to take into account the OCTs extraordinary ecological richness and the potential of OCTs as strategically important outposts, spread all over the world, as proponents of the EU’s values, to ‘promote the EU’s values and standards in the wider world’, the ongoing liberalisation of international trade and also the increased regional integration.

The new partnership with the EU should help the OCTs to develop competitive economies, by supporting education and innovation, a more flexible trade regime, protecting biodiversity, developing modern technologies to combat negative consequences of climate change, a stronger cooperation in the fight against organised crime (e.g. money laundering, trafficking of drugs and human beings). The core aim is to strengthen the economic position of the OCTs by increasing their competitiveness and resilience and cooperation with their regional, national and European partners.

In January 2012 the leaders of the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) during the annual Overseas Countries and Territories Association (OCTA) Ministerial Conference and the 10^th OCT-EU Forum in Brussels, reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening ties with the EU and the necessity of gathering input from OCT Leaders for inclusion in a new OAD. They agreed to common positions for talks with the EU Commission and signed a Political Declaration, in which they asked the EU to take into account the interests of the OCTs when negotiating bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements in regions where OCTs are located, with the aim of limiting the tariff liberalization eroding OCT preferences, increasing the competitive pressures on OCT industries that export similar products to the EU market and supporting them in adapting to these additional challenges for sustainable development, to improve their economic competitiveness, particularly in sectors like fisheries which lack economies of scale but remain vitally important for OCT economies.

The OCT leaders reiterated the need to work together to integrate and harness the resources and potential of the OCTs for the mutual benefit of the EU/OCT family. “It is the only way that we can use our combined economic potential to achieve long term sustainability for all of our peoples. For those of us who rely on Europe we must begin to appreciate that, if that support was to dwindle significantly we will need to find mechanisms to cope. This will not be easy because we have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle”.

- Joyce van Genderen-Naar is a Brussels lawyer, author, lecturer, descending from Suriname, South America.

This article was first published in Spanish in ALAI's magazine América Latina en Movimiento, No. 474, "La descolonización inconclusa", April 2012. http://alainet.org/publica/474.phtml

https://www.alainet.org/en/active/54286