Caricom Heads fall short of Rose Hall Declaration targets
Stabroek News
July 22, 2004
Caricom Secretariat officials and staff at a retreat yesterday at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel.
The failure of Caricom Heads of Government to finalise the key options for governance as recommended by a technical committee has led to a number of other decisions taken in the 2003 Rose Hall Declaration not being fulfilled during the past year.
Among key decisions not taken and which hinged on the declaration was the reform of the Caricom Secretariat to enhance its effectiveness as the administrative and technocratic arm of the community and the automatic resource transfers for the financing of community institutions.
Jamaica's Prime Minister PJ Patterson at the last Heads of Government meeting in Grenada confessed to "feeling a deep personal disappointment" that the Heads had not achieved the targets set in the Rose Hall Declaration, among them being consideration of the various options for governance.
The Rose Hall Declaration was adopted last year in Montego Bay, Jamaica on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of Caricom.
Although a technical group was formed and recommendations made, they were never discussed publicly and no decision was taken.
A significant aspect of the declaration was meant to improve governance for the purpose of deepening the integration process but a source close to the Caricom Secretariat told Stabroek News that to date the failure to disseminate widely the three reports from the technical committee on the issue of governance was one of the setbacks.
The reports, three coming from the technical committee, were posted on the CARICOM website but it was felt that there should have been an aggressive public awareness campaign on the issues. Though the public had been invited to read and post their comments, Stabroek News understands that there was not a single comment posted on the reports.
According to the recent communique which came out of the Heads meeting in Grenada, it was agreed that some measure of reform of the secretariat would take place in keeping with the recommendations that came out of the technical committee report.
Also in keeping with the recommendation it was agreed in Grenada that there be an urgent meeting of the Assembly of Caribbean Community Parliamentarians (ACCP) to discuss the proposals on governance. The recommendations from the ACCP would then be forwarded to the Prime Ministerial Subcommittee on Governance for its review and for recommendation to the Heads of Government.
According to the source who preferred anonymity, the establishment of a commission or other executive mechanism to facilitate the deepening of regional integration and to exercise fulltime executive responsibility to implement the community decisions was stymied because the governance issue has not been settled.
The issue now at stake, the official said, is whether the commission or executive mechanism will still be established or whether the Office of the Secretary General would be vested with more powers.
The Commission, according to the declaration, was meant to relate to the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) and other areas of the integration process as the Heads may from time to time determine; be accountable to the Heads and to be responsive to the authority or other Organs of the Community within their areas of competence.
Another area affected owing to decisions not taken on governance was a review of the functioning of the Organs of the Community in order to identify possibilities for rationalisation including the decentralisation of decisionmaking.
The objective behind the governance issue was to develop a system of "mature regionalism" in which critical policy decisions of the Community taken by Heads or by other Organs of the Community, would have the force of law throughout the region as a result of the operation of domestic legislation and the Treaty of Chaguaramas appropriately revised, and the authority of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in its original jurisdiction taking into account the constitutional provisions of member states.
Within this framework, it would be both legitimate and feasible for a group or groups of Caricom Member States to forge such closer links among themselves as they consider appropriate.
Other areas agreed to were the early unrestricted movement of people within Caricom in 2003/2004 in keeping with the objectives for the establishment of the CSME and in that context to promote macroeconomic convergence and the unification of capital and financial markets.
In addition, the agreement to appoint a highlevel expert group to identify opportunities and required institutional and policy measures to promote integrated production in the community, especially through private sector investment, is still to be implemented.
The expert group is to be drawn from the public and private sectors, the labour movement, civil society, Caricom and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States secretariats, the Caribbean Development Bank and the University of the West Indies.
Among the areas that had not been met was the launching of the Caribbean Court of Justice as part of Caricom's 30th anniversary project. The CCJ is still to be launched with at least two jurisdictions, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago experiencing opposition in various quarters to it being their final court of appeal.
The court is now scheduled to be launched later this year with it becoming operational in at least two jurisdictions.