One year ago Europe made clear that it intended changing the basis on which it provides development assistance to the region. Then, two Communications (policy papers), proposed that the EU should concentrate its future support on the least developed countries and a limited number of priority areas. It should graduate out of assistance high income and upper middle income countries such as those in the Caribbean.
No one in the region spoke.
Eventually it was the ACP Secretary General, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, who made public the matter in the Caribbean when he told Caricom heads and the media that the European Commission’s ‘Agenda for Change’ was advancing its new approach towards aid for the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states (the ACP) and others. Governments and the media expressed surprise and concern.
In this void the policy progressed through the European Commission,