GFDD and FUNGLODE Honorary President, Leonel Fernández participates in the Second Meeting of the Eminent Persons Group of the ACP Countries

On Thursday, the former President of the Dominican Republic and honorary President of the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and its sister organization in the DR, (FUNGLODE), Dr. Leonel Fernández, participated in the Second Meeting of the Eminent Persons Group of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group), which was held in the capital city of Belgium.

In addition to adopting the report of the First Meeting of the
Eminent Persons Group (EPG), which was held in March, the meeting developed the strategies for the coming years and analyzed the historical perspectives, including the successes and failures experienced up to now, among other topics.

In his speech, Fernández said
that the meeting on Thursday is a continuation of the one held in March, and it was convened to analyze the future of the countries of the ACP Group, and in particular to examine what will happen to the Cotonou Agreement.

"We know that a lot has happened since the agreement was signed in the year 2000; much has been happening in the world, in the European Union and in the countries of the ACP Group, and that we need to adjust our future
relations taking into account a new paradigm shift in terms international relations," he affirmed.

He stated that the very mechanisms to be used to achieve this goal will be discussed at the event. "We are conducting research and we are listening to some ideas that have emerged," the former Dominican President said.

He explained that what is being sought is to share the ideas that the representatives of all these regions, as
well as members of the European Union that are participating in the meeting, have in common.

He stressed that many of the countries of the ACP Group that previously were very poor now are middle-income nations, that is, their needs are different from those they had two decades ago, which require that their economies become more competitive, making it is necessary to improve their human resources and to broaden their knowledge, in addition to improving their access to
technology. "Looking at our relations with the European Union, we have to transfer this knowledge, as well as what pertains to access to markets and new investments," Fernández said. He argued that, in agreement with the European Union, in the future the ACP Group should focus on issues having to do with development so that both can benefit, analyzing the values ​​they have in common.

Agenda of the meeting

The first part of the meeting was led by Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria and Chairman of the EPG. The work agenda included the development of a framework, scheduling and planning, the identification of issues and results to be produced through the regional consultations, and the consideration of the consultation programs in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

The work session on Thursday afternoon, which was chaired by former
President Fernández in his capacity as Vice President of the Eminent Persons Group, included the design of the communications strategy of the ACP Group.

Among the participants at the event was a delegation of the European Union, which was integrated by Nicholas Westcott, Director General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) for Africa, and Klaus Rudischhauser, incumbent of the Directorate General for European Development and Cooperation.

Background
It must be recalled that Fernández was selected as Vice President of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) during the First Meeting of the Council of ACP Ministers, held on March 25th of this year and in this city.

In the aforementioned meeting, the former Dominican Head of State was given the task of chairing the Third Meeting of the Group,
which is scheduled to take place at the beginning of November in Grenada, a country that is located in the South-Eastern part of the Caribbean Sea.