(BBC) Caribbean Commun-ity (Caricom) leaders appear to have finally agreed on a mechanism to ensure that decisions at the highest level of the integration grouping are followed through.

After an inconclusive summit in Jamaica in July, heads of government mandated a special committee of leaders to review proposals on governance within the Community.

The panel met in Grenada and settled on a new entity, to be called the Council of Ambassadors, to oversee the implementation of Caricom decisions. Critics say the failure to follow-through on decisions has hampered progress toward Caribbean economic integration. Current Caricom chairman, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding, said he believes the panel arrived at a workable solution.

Domestic action

He said: “The concept is that the ambassadors will be based in their respective countries and they would head what we term the regional integration unit which is to be established in each country. “Their job will be to just follow-up, to make sure that domestic action is taken to give effect to the decisions of the (Caricom) heads.”  Mr Golding said some countries, such as St Vincent and the Grenadines, already have Caricom-specific units in operation.

The proposal is to go before the next full Caricom heads of government meeting in September for approval.

What’s unclear is exactly what powers the proposed council will have.

Mr Golding said the specific job description of the ambassadors and how they would relate to the other organs of the Community were still to be determined.
Shortlist

The panel hopes that all these matters will be in place by July 2011, so that the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which establishes Caricom, could be adjusted to recognise the Council as an independent organ. Mr Golding said that, in the interim, they could be set up as a sub-committee of heads of government.

The Grenada meeting also set up a nine-member committee to begin the process of shortlisting candidates to succeed outgoing Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington.

The committee would be chaired by the Barbados Foreign Minister, Maxine McClean.The plan is for the committee to prepare a preliminary list of candidates for presentation to the September summit.
Attendance

Mr Carrington is leaving office at the end of the year after 18 years at the secretariat in Guyana.

Mr Golding said he hoped the new Secretary-General would be able to take up office in January.The meeting in St George’s was also attended by the leaders of Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, who is on a visit to the United States, was represented by her foreign minister.