Brussels, 20 June 2018

Co-Presidents of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly – Hon. Louis Michel, and Co-President, Hon. Joseph Hyacinthe Owona Kono, Hon. President-in-Office of the EU Council, Ekaterina Zaharieva, Deputy Prime Minister for Judicial Reform and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Members of the JPA, Distinguished guests

Thank you for the opportunity of addressing you on the occasion of the 35^th Session of your Assembly.

Brussels, ACP House, 15th June 2018

Hon. Joseph Owona Kono, President of the ACP Parliamentary Assembly, Honourable Members, Excellencies, ACP Ambassadors & Representatives of Missions, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Guests –members of the ACP extended family especially those who have travelled from so far to be here at ACP House.

An  ACP-EU Technical Seminar on Trafficking in Human Beings, with special focus on Women and Children has just ended at the ACP Secretariat, where delegates gathered to share views and make recommendations on the way forward in combatting this social affliction.

Your Excellencies, Honourable Members, Dear Friends and Colleagues,

After a couple of years, I am very happy to attend the Joint Parliamentary Assembly back here to Brussels. In my brief opening remarks I would like to focus on the important progress we have made on a few key files since we were last together in Port-au-Prince in December ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly

Brussels, Belgium, 19 June 2018

Your Excellency – Yuri Sterk, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, Hon. Louis Michel, Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Distinguished Colleagues and invited guests,

I thank you for the honour and privilege of addressing this session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. I wish to place on record the appreciation of ACP Members, and indeed of the ACP Group, to the European Parliament for offering to host these meetings.

During the 43rd ACP-EU Joint Council of Ministers meeting held in Lomé, Togo, discussions on the situation of ACP Middle Income Countries (MICs) and the current norm of using only Gross National Income per capita as the criteria for determining the classification as to whether a country lies in the low, middle or high-income range, took place.

Brussels | Lomé  – African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the European Union will walk the talk on global governance by organising joint activities during United Nations conferences this year, according to co-presidents of the Joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers.

President Kenyatta and Prime Minister Holness with their Foreign Ministers, exchanged views on ACP Affairs at the G7 Summit in Canada.

Eight ACP heads of government attended the G7 Summit in Quebec, Canada, namely, Jovenel Moïse: President of Haiti and Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM, Andrew Holness: Prime Minister of Jamaica, Uhuru Kenyatta: President of Kenya, Hilda Heine: President of the Marshall Islands, Paul Kagame: President of Rwanda and Chair of the African Union, Macky Sall: President of Senegal, Danny Faure: President of Seychelles and Cyril Ramaphosa: President of South Africa.