Recently Prime Minister Hon. Sarah Wescot-Williams, led discussions regarding the country’s vision, strategy, relations and development cooperation with the European Union (EU) and the Overseas Country Territory Association (OCTA).
This meeting was facilitated by the Department of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations (BAK).
The objective of the meeting was to brief the members of the Council of Ministers how the country will move forward since the last EU-OCTA Forum that was held in New Caledonia earlier in the year, and which was attended by the Prime Minister and several civil servants, attached to different ministries.
In the South Pacific island of New Caledonia, two important documents were signed, firstly, the Joint Position Paper, with respect to the future of relations between Overseas Countries & Territories (OCTs) and the EU, and secondly, the OCTA Political Declaration.
During the briefing in the Council of Ministers, presentations were made by the Secretary General of Ministry VROMI Louis Brown, Loekie Morales, BAK and Khalilah Peters, Senior Policy Officer at the Directorate Foreign Relations, both latter departments falling under the Ministry of General Affairs, a portfolio held by the Prime Minister of the Country.
Besides the aforementioned documents being discussed, the briefing also dealt with the legal framework governing OCTs; the cooperative framework between the EU and the OCTs; development programs; and the national strategy.
The Cabinet of Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten in The Hague also assists with preparations of the process of developing an EU dossier for the country.
After Sint Maarten acquired country status last October, the nation is now officially an OCT in its own right.
The OCTs are non-European countries and territories that have special relations with EU members, such as Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The OCTs are associated with the European Community with the goal of promoting their economic and social development and establishing closer economic relations between them and the Community as a whole.
The European Community Treaty states that the association of the OCTs with the Community ‘shall serve primarily to further the interests and prosperity of the inhabitants of these countries and territories in order to lead them to the economic, social and cultural development to which they aspire.’
There are in total approximately 25 OCTs. The OCTs are constitutionally linked to a Member State, but without being part of the Community themselves.
The European Commission (EC) has since 2005 suggested building a new relationship based on the OCTs, their Member Countries and the EU as a whole.
The European Commission wishes to carry out a holistic review of these relations and to consider a substantial revision of the OCT-EC association.