Wednesday 4 March 2009

Introductory Seminar on the Cotonou Agreement in Romania

The Romanian NDGO platform (FOND) organized an introductory seminar on the Cotonou Agreement on the 29th January 2009, in Bucharest. It was for the first time when a public debate was made on this topic.

The purpose of this seminar was to present a general overview of the agreement emphasizing the political and trade implications for Romania. The speakers invited were Florent Sebban (Department of Foreign Relations of the French NGDO Platform - Coordination Sud), Monica Alexandru (Department of Assistance for Development , the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Dan Maxim – general deputy director (Department of Foreign Trade, the Romanian Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises, Commerce and Environmental Affairs). Among the participants at this seminar there were FOND members, mass-media, representatives from the UK Embassy in Romania, UNDP Romania, the Ministry of Education and Research and political science students.

Romania ratified the revised Cotonou Agreement in the beginning of 2008. As it became a member of the European Union only in 2007, Romania had no influence in the revision of the Cotonou Agreement and had to accept “by default” all the EU agreements.

It was interesting to notice during the seminar that the Romanian Ministry of Trade is aware of the fact that one of the objectives of the agreement is the eradication of poverty. The Romanian Government seems to agree with the generally shared view that one of the means of achieving it is to integrate the economies of the ACP countries (African, Caribbean and Pacific States) in the global economy. It seems that the Romanian Government shows no signs of interest to consider also the problematic aspects of the liberalization of the African states’ economies, despite Romania’s own transition experience before the accession to the EU. Civil society organizations have emphasized that the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) pose a serious threat to the local producers in the ACP countries. Representatives of the Romanian Government also mentioned that at present there is a low interest from the part of the Romanian state towards Africa, despite its intention to renew old connections with some African states.

The seminar concluded with a very interesting message, inspired by our French speaker on which civil society representatives agreed: Although it has no direct interest in the African countries and no heritage as a colonizer, precisely because of those reasons Romania should try at least to respect ACPs by supporting their cause and interests in Brussels.

This event was organized as part of the FOND project: “Development Cooperation in Romania: Building FOuNDation for Policy Work ”, financed by the Presidency Fund (http://www.presidencyfund.org/).

Information provided by Adela Rusu, FOND, http://www.fondromania.org/

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