The 43rd session of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly among the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and the European Union (ACP-EU JPA) is about to kick off in Brussels. As of Saturday the 24th until the 28th, the summit will represent an important occasion to raise animated debates and put forward possible common solutions to face global crises like climate change, terrorism, food security, poverty, and human rights.

The S&D Group’s delegation will make sure the assembly tackles the challenges ahead with a progressive approach centred on multilateralism, democracy, and rule of law, despite the clear attempts of the far-right to block any possible step forward and interpret all prevailing challenges solely through the prism of migration and security. We are confident that this ACP-EU could trigger a strong push to unblock the approval of the long-awaited Post-Cotonou Agreement, a powerful tool to facilitate multilateralism over conflicts and breaches of international law.

The S&D Group’s delegation, led by ACP-EU JPA Co-President Carlos Zorrinho, will include among others, our three ACP-EU vice presidents Dan Nica, Christophe Clergeau, Maria Arena, and the S&D coordinator, Hannes Heide.

The co-Chair of the ACP-EU JPA and S&D MEP, Carlos Zorrinho, said:

“Climate change, humanitarian crises, displacement of poor people, terrorism, food insecurity, price hikes due to the Russian war against Ukraine, and the veto to the approval of the Post-Cotonou Agreement held hostage by first the Hungarian and now the Polish government – there is a word well-suited to describe these correlating challenges and threats: disproportion.

“There is a disproportion among the causes and the places of origin of these crises and the places where their consequences are more severe and wide-spread, mainly in the African continent and among the Caribbean and Pacific islands. These disproportionate effects can be easily identified in the consequences of climate change in developing countries – mainly provoked by the most developed areas of the world – with an increase of drought, famine, displacement, and conflicts, but also with a shortage of grain from Ukraine and fertilisers from Russia, because of the war.

“There is no better solution other than global cooperation. Multilateralism among equals is the only concrete way forward.

"The Post-Cotonou process has shown that the geopolitical aspirations of the EU are not compatible with an EU tied up with a decision-making model based on blackmail and vetos. This is the time for courage – the time to finally turn the page of confrontation and begin a phase of multilateralism among equals”