Joseph OWONA KONO, Co-President of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly, and Louis MICHEL, Co-President of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly, open the formal sitting of the 35th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in the European Parliament in Brussels.

ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly - 35th session: extracts from the opening of the formal sitting with Joseph OWONA KONO, Co-President of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly and Louis MICHEL, Co-President of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly

SOUNDBITE (English), Joseph OWONA KONO, co-resident of the Parliamentary Assembly ACP-EU, We have adopted a declaration in which we made it very clear that we would like the post-Cotonou framework to include an enhance role for the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, this enable this assembly to continue to play its role in following agreement that insures multilateral governance.

SOUNDBITE (French), Joseph OWONA KONO, co-resident of the Parliamentary Assembly ACP-EU, ACP countries are vulnerable when it comes to climate change and this goes to show that multilateral effort are essential when it comes to mitigating problems and promoting sustainable forms of development in ACP countries.

SOUNDBITE (French), Louis MICHEL, Co President , Hopefully from the EU side we see the last barriers being lifted and hopefully we are able to adopt the negotiating mandate soon. The Cotonou agreement, its merits was in combining development aide, trade and the political nature of our relations. These 3 elements behind this historical agreement have to be maintained, but I would say seriously amplified in any future legally binding agreements.

SOUNDBITE (French), Louis MICHEL (ALDE, BE), Co-President , I would say that the creation of a waste free trade area between the EU and Africa, within the framework with the current bilateral agreement, would allow to us to do some of the challenges that face both Africans and Europeans. The prospect of prosperity for African and European young people and therefore I would say it is the only solution to resolve the difficulties that we are having now. Trying to deal with migratory flows.

SOUNDBITE (French), Louis MICHEL (ALDE, BE), Co-President , We have to offer young people in Africa rights, duties and a certain amount of dignities if we don&rsquo;t do this we will be guilty of allowing young people to fall into violence and extremism and then they would move into exile and become one day slaves, so we have to invest in the four essential sectors: economy, governance, education and health.

SOUNDBITE (English), Louis MICHEL (ALDE, BE), Co-President, Violent extremism is posing a threat to the development gains enjoyed by many countries in recent years and there is a need to pay closer attention to the root causes violent extremism. The proposed urgency resolution underlines our common interest in cooperating as much as possible in the field of counter-terrorism, it also emphasises our conviction that counter-terrorism action can only be sustainable if it respects Human rights and the rule of law.

ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly - 35th session: extracts from the opening of the formal sitting with Joseph OWONA KONO, Co-President of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly and Louis MICHEL, Co-President of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly

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35th ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary assembly