The 8th Summit of Heads of State of Government of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group has welcomed the important contribution of the European Development Fund towards development programmes in ACP states and regions.
The summit which concluded in Papua New Guinea on Wednesday encouraged further cooperation with the EU in identifying other sources for financing the SDGs.
Leaders called for a conference to be organised, with the support of the European Commission along with the United Nations and other international financial institutions, on strategies for development financing, in particular financing multiannual development programmes for ACP countries, and the intensification of South-South and Triangular Cooperation to build productive capacities of ACP countries. At the same time, the Summit also called on developed countries that have not yet done so to honour their developed aid commitments.
The Summit deplored illicit financial flows and the haemorrhage of financial resources from ACP member states through all forms of capital flight, in particular, tax evasion schemes of multinational enterprises. At the same time ACP leaders deplored the European Commission on its Communication on a “Fair and Efficient Tax System in the European Union”, unjustifiably listing 15 ACP states as non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, causing severe damage to the financial sectors of these states.
The Summit called on the EU to immediately withdraw the list and refrain from issuing such publications in the future.
On trade, the Summit reaffirmed full commitment to conclude the Doha Development Agenda of the World Trade Organisation. ACP leaders expressed their deep concern at the negative consequences of trade pacts outside the WTO system being negotiated by the EU and other partners, while also urging more intra-ACP trade as a way to address preference erosion for ACP trade.
Finally, the ACP Summit reaffirmed its confidence in multilateralism as a major instrument in global political, economic and financial governance. Leaders support continued democratisation of the institutional architecture of multilateralism, including the UN bodies and Bretton Woods institutions. The ACP Group is actively seeking observer status for the President of the Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government and the ACP Secretary General in major international fora of strategic interest to the ACP.
The Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government is the highest political organ of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, which brings together 79 member states under the common pursuit of poverty eradication and sustainable development.