Plans Move Ahead for First OECS Assembly

Details

Regional

Wednesday, 28 March 2012 02:29

By caribarena news

Antigua St John's - Plans are being elaborated for the inaugural session of the OECS Regional Assembly due to be held in Antigua on June 15.

OECS Heads of Government took the decision at the 54th Meeting of the OECS Authority to convene the inaugural session of the OECS Assembly on a date close to the anniversary of the signing of the Revised Treaty of Basseterre which established the OECS Economic Union.

The regional assembly is one of the new organs established under the Revised Treaty. It will provide a forum to debate issues affecting the sub-region. It is expected that the Parliament of Antigua & Barbuda will be the seat of the Assembly.

The OECS Assembly will comprise both government and opposition representatives from each member state, in numbers that reflect their proportionate representation in their respective parliaments.

In furtherance of the OECS Authority's decision regarding the inaugural session of the Assembly, the OECS Secretariat has contracted the services of Dr Rosemarie Husbands Mathurin to strengthen the technical support required for the Assembly to start operating.

Dr Mathurin is a lawyer and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St Lucia. She has been mandated to facilitate the inauguration and full operation of the OECS Assembly.

Dr Mathurin visited Antigua on Monday and Tuesday to consult with senior officials about the first session of the Assembly in Antigua in mid-June.

She met with the Speaker of the House, D Giselle Isaac; Clerk to Parliament Ramona Small; Solicitor-General Lebrecht Hesse; OECS Commissioner, Ambassador Colin Murdoch; and Ambassador Anthony Liverpool of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
 
Matters relating to the implementation of the OECS Economic Union in Antigua & Barbuda are handled by a sub-committee of the Cabinet chaired by Finance and Economy Minister Harold Lovell.

“Antigua & Barbuda is truly honoured to be the seat of the Assembly and to host the inaugural session of this new regional parliament,” Minister Lovell said, “and my sub-committee is working hard to ensure that we have an historic first session that launches a new chapter in the success story that is OECS regional integration.”

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