MINUTES OF THE SITTING OF MONDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2006

(2006/C 330/01)

(The sitting opened at 11.05 a.m.)

Formal inaugural sitting

The following addressed the Assembly:

Dame Billie A. Miller, Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, Mr René Radembino-Coniquet, Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Mrs Glenys Kinnock, Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, and Hon. Owen S. Arthur, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Barbados, who declared the 12th session open.

(The sitting adjourned at 12.20 p.m. and resumed at 3.10 p.m.)

IN THE CHAIR: Mr RADEMBINO-CONIQUET

Co-President

Sitting of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly

The Co-President welcomed all the participants.

1.   Composition of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly

The Co-President announced that the list of Members of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly, as forwarded by the authorities of the ACP States and the President of the European Parliament, would be annexed to the minutes.

2.   Accreditation of non-parliamentary representatives

The Co-President announced that the authorities of the ACP States had sent a list of non-parliamentary representatives. In accordance with Article 17(1) of the Partnership Agreement and Article 1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly, he proposed that these representatives should be recorded and their names listed in an annex to the minutes.

The Joint Parliamentary Assembly agreed to this.

3.   Substitutes

The Co-President announced the following substitutes: Badia i Cuchet (for Ferreira), Budreikaitė (for Kułakowksi), Bushill-Matthews (for Coelho), Evans (for Dobolyi), Klass (for Langendries), Lavarra (for Arif), Myller (for Rosati), Seeber (for Schröder) and Zaleski (for Wijkman).

4.   Adoption of draft agenda (ACP-EU/3932/06)

The Co-President announced that the deadlines were as follows:

The draft agenda was adopted as shown in these minutes.

5.   Approval of the minutes of the 11th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (OJ C 307, 15.12.2006)

The minutes were approved.

6.   Statement by Mr Louis Michel, Member of the Commission with special responsibility for development and humanitarian aid

Mr Michel spoke on behalf of the Commission, with special mention of the programming of the 10th European Development Fund.

7.   Action taken by the Commission on the resolutions adopted at the 11th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, held in Vienna (Austria) from 19 to 22 June 2006

The Commissioner referred to a document that had been distributed detailing the follow-up by the Commission to the resolutions adopted in Vienna.

8.   Question Time with the Commission

Altogether 22 questions were put to the Commission.

Mr Michel replied to the questions in writing and gave oral replies to the supplementary questions by the following authors:

Question No 1 by Mr Kaczmarek on programming of the 10th EDF;

Question No 11 by Mr Agnoletto (for Mrs Morgantini) on the involvement of civil society;

Question No 22 by Mr Duguid (Barbados) on increased budget support;

Question No 6 by Mrs Scheele on health and social development;

Question No 5 by Mr Cornillet on the counterfeiting of medicines;

Question No 7 by Mrs Aubert on shortages of health workers;

Question No 8 by Mr Bowis on malaria and tuberculosis vaccines;

Question No 2 by Mrs Hall on illegal logging;

Question No 13 by Mr Bushill-Matthews on fighting illegal immigration from Africa;

Question No 12 by Mr Agnoletto on EU international trade policy and African migrants to Europe;

Question No 21 by Mr Schnellhardt (for Mr Gahler) on Togo;

Question No 15 by Mrs Gomes on the trial of prisoners in Ethiopia;

Question No 20 by Mr Schlyter on toxic waste dumping in Côte d'Ivoire;

Question No 19 by Mrs Gomes (for Mr Jardim Fernandes) on the cholera epidemic in Angola;

Question No 16 by Mr Van Hecke on Northern Uganda.

The authors of Questions Nos 3 — Mrs Goudin — and 17 — Mrs Carlotti — had no supplementary questions.

The authors of Questions Nos 4, 9, 10, 14 and 18 were not present.

9.   Debate with the Commission

Speakers: Deerpalsing (Mauritius), McAvan, Carlotti, Nyassa (Cameroon), Cornillet, Schmidt, Budreikaitė, Barry (Senegal), Van Hecke, Akpovi (Benin), Cavuilati (Fiji), Conteh (Sierra Leone), Sylla (Mali), Kinnock, Sebetela (Botswana), Aubert and Geingob (Namibia).

Mr Michel responded to the points raised in the debate.

10.   Urgent topic 1: The situation in the East African region of the ACP Group

Speakers: Gahler, Gomes, Darbo (Chad), Van Hecke, Deng (Sudan), Aubert, Berend, Omar (Djibouti), Teshoma Toga (Ethiopia), Evans, Mugambe (Uganda), Kaczmarek and Mantovani.

Mr Michel responded to and wound up the debate.

(The sitting closed at 7.05 p.m.)