-denies delays
Caricom says that it is working with the European Commission (EC) to expedite access to funding for the region, while denying that any sloth on its part has held up regional programming or prevented member states from accessing funds.
Caricom was responding to an article which appeared in the regional media, in which head of the EU Delegation Ambassador Geert Heikens was quoted as saying that Cariforum/Caricom Secretariat has been unable to develop a viable proposal to commence the implementation of acquired funds. Assuming that the Head of the Delegation was correctly quoted, the Secretariat stated, the course of programming of regional funds needed to be clarified.
In a news release, Caricom said that since the signing of the 10th EDF Regional Indicative Programme in November last year, the EC has required the region to develop a detailed roadmap as well as a list of Cariforum’s priorities for the use of the resources extracted from the roadmap, before any work on a detailed programming of the resources of the 156 million euros fund would be contemplated. As a result, between February and September this year, when member states consulted with each other and deliberated on the way forward, the secretariat completed and presented several versions of the roadmap to the EC. Following discussions on the first version of the roadmap here in Georgetown, a second version was drafted for discussion at a meeting in Brussels and at that forum, EC officials advised Caricom that the 10th EDF Regional Resources could not be accessed before July 2010, the secretariat said. It said this date was corrected in July this year in Antigua and Barbuda, when a third version of the roadmap was discussed and the EC Director General – Development, advised that resources could be accessed once Cariforum and the EC could agree on the priorities, and the relevant documentation could be processed through the commission’s systems. At the July forum, the release stated, the EC Director General suggested that submission of the road map and the priority list should take place by October 31 this year. However, Caricom Secretary General Edwin Carrington committed the region to making the submission by September 30 and met the deadline.
On November 30, the Director-General, Europe Aid Co-operation Office (AIDCO) and Development responded to Carrington’s correspondence and while no further action was taken since, the secretariat has been working with the EU Delegation here in Georgetown, which manages the regional programme together with the EC Headquarters in Brussels, in order to advance the work required to ensure the programme is expeditiously implemented.
