At the start of February, Stefano Manservisi, the Director General of the European Commission’s Development Directorate, delivered a lecture at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI). It was a part of university’s Distinguished Open Lectures series. His subject was ‘The EU and the Caribbean: A proposal for a modern partnership beyond 2020’.
At the time, the media coverage was weak and subsequent public debate non-existent since there was no official text or press release. This was unfortunate as Mr Manservisi, an important and influential figure, outlined Europe’s post 2020 thinking about the relationship that the EU 27 will seek with the Caribbean.
In his address, Mr Manservisi made some important points about the way in which the European Commission is thinking about the region in a post-Cotonou and a post-Brexit context. In many respects it is very different to what has gone before and raises difficult questions for the region.