Marking time in Castries
Stabroek News
November 26, 2003
The BBC Caribbean report on Monday evening 17th November stated that the Prime Minister of Barbados, the Hon Owen Arthur considered that the recently concluded Special Summit of Caricom was a waste of time. The Special Summit (the ninth) had been held in Castries, Saint Lucia, on 13th and 14th November. It had been poorly attended with six Heads of Government including P.M. Arthur absent.
The BBC reporter may have been interpreting the PM's words. According to the report in the Barbados Nation of Owen Arthur's press conference on Saturday 15th November (quoted in SN on 19th November) he had used more careful and diplomatic language but meaning the same thing. "Quite frankly the PM is quoted as saying he did not believe that the purposes for a special meeting at this time were being achieved especially pertaining to matters concerning the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). Prime Minister Arthur further explained that he did not attend because the preparatory meetings for the Summit had not taken place."
The image which emerges from the detailed account given at the press conference of the efforts to hold the preparatory meeting is of an integration movement which is over-stretched and perhaps under-focussed on what have been identified as the crucial issues for the future of the Community, namely, the Governance of the Community and the CSME.
Reading the communique issued by the Summit there is indeed much in it which is disconcerting especially if one views Caricom as increasingly the major instrument for securing a viable and secure future for the region. The outcome of the deliberations on governance issues including the proposed Executive Commission and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) are particularly disturbing.
It will be recalled that a major source for optimism about the growth and development of Caricom, after the Montego Bay Summit early in July this year, derived from the recognition by Caricom Heads of Government of the urgent need to improve the governance of the movement and in particular, the need for a Commission that "will exercise full time executive responsibility for furthering implementation of community decisions". In this recognition Heads of Government were returning to a major recommendation of the West Indian Commission chaired by Sir Shridath Ramphal.
Doubtless influenced by the high effectiveness of the European Commission which provides the motor for integration in the European Union, the West Indian Commission had foreseen the need for a somewhat similar mechanism within Caricom. Put in an over-simplified way it was perceived that there was need for a mechanism which could ensure implementation of Community decisions because it would be insulated from contrary pressures within each member state. The W.I. Commission's proposal was far-reaching in its unspoken implications. For example, it did not spell out how Community decisions were to be given the force of law within each member state as is the case in the EU - a matter which will directly impinge likewise on the original jurisdiction of the CCJ. It was because of such complexity that it was also agreed in Montego Bay "that the Expert Group of Heads of Government assisted by a technical group be entrusted with the further task of elaborating these proposals for a Special Meeting of the Conference later this year dedicated to taking decisions upon them".
However the Special Summit did not take decisions on them. Instead the Castries communiqué states that "To encourage widespread public participation in developing the new arrangements for governance, Heads of Government decided to release the reports (i.e. the reports from the technical group or groups) to the Community at large so as to provide interest groups and individuals with an opportunity to make their reactions known."
It is difficult to understand the significance of this sudden but desirable commitment to consultation with the people of the Community. Such consultation will require a considerable measure of organisation and guidance. On such technical reports there should be public education about the need for new mechanisms and how they will operate. Without such education and explanation their rejection will almost certainly occur. Who will initiate the process, the Secretariat or national governments? Will it include, as seems appropriate, debates in national parliaments?
The communiqué mentions the existence of technical reports not only on the proposed Commission but on the role of the Association of Caribbean Community Parliamentarians and on the adoption of the principle of automatic resource transfer for the financing of community institutions. But do the technical reports include one long overdue measure on the reform of the Caricom Secretariat to enhance its effectiveness as the administrative and technocratic arm of Caricom as envisaged in the Montego Bay decisions?
The process of consultation with interest groups and individuals could, as these things go, take up to a year or longer. The Heads of Government who met so recently in Saint Lucia will only have themselves to blame if their decision on consultation, if not implemented expeditiously and constructively, is cynically seen in some quarters as a tactic for once again kicking the governance issues sideways.
In the case of the Caribbean Court of Justice the Saint Lucia Summit welcomed the appointment in August of the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC) and the Board of Trustees for the CCJ fund and noted the dedication and speed with which these bodies had approached their tasks. All to the good but the Communique goes on to state that "Heads of Government now await a firm indication from the RJLSC regarding a date for inauguration of the Court". However, as far as it is known, no member state at this date has enacted all the necessary constitutional amendments and other legislation which will give effect to the jurisdiction of the Court. As the RJLSC is only responsible for the appointment of the judges, does the Castries decision mean that the court will be inaugurated once the judges have been appointed? One might then have a situation in which there will be a panel of distinguished jurists without any work to do. The Unit responsible for the establishment of the CCJ should urgently clarify the situation especially having regard to the wise council of the Attorney General of Barbados, the Hon Mia Mottley, that there is only one chance to get it right.
In the case of the CSME the Special Consultation (the third of its kind) which was to have been held in Bridgetown on 8th October was postponed. However the communiqué records that there were significant advances in implementing the CSME as follows (1) eleven of the twelve member states (the twelfth to follow shortly) have the necessary arrangements to allow Caricom nationals, who are graduates, media workers, artistes, musicians and sport persons to work without need for permits (11) all Member States were expected to meet the December deadlines for removal of retraction on the Right of Establishment, the provision of Services and the movement of Capital and (111) there was equal progress on hassle free travel.
It is nevertheless difficult to know for certain how significant is the progress being made. Havlock Brewster, writing just over a year ago on progress with the CSME listed several areas in which there was no progress or very little on matters including a common external protective regime, sectoral policies, fiscal policy harmonisation and harmonisation of company law.
While the Castries special summit appears to have served little purpose it may have provided a moment of truth, a further revelation of the major factor that retards the deepening of integration, namely, jealously guarded sovereignty narrowly defined. There is still too little appreciation of the concept of shared sovereignty or sovereignty held in common which must ultimately provide the bedrock as the only basis for deepening integration beyond its present obsolete and decaying structures. It is the commitment to narrow sovereignty which bedevils implementation of the CSME. Where the European Single Market was introduced by one decision abolishing frontiers and creating a single space at one stroke, Caricom stumbles forward by what Brewster calls gradual state by state removal of barriers.