Sub Region Ushers in OECS Assembly

Details

Regional

Friday, 10 August 2012 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua St. John's - The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States will Today usher in its newest organ - the OECS Assembly - two years after ratifying the treaty that brought the Economic Union into being.

Describing it as the People's Parliament, OECS Director-General Dr Len Ishmael said it demonstrates a new level of maturity from politicians in the sub-region.
 

"Delegations will be seated and will debate as national delegations aspects of regional policy that have implications at the national level," she said.
 
"It requires that type of political maturity for those delegations, opposition and government alike, to come together in the OECS Assembly and be able to speak to the important issues that face us as a region without the divisiveness that perhaps we see occasionally at the national level," she said.
 
The director-general was speaking at a session with regional journalists held on the eve of the assembly's inauguration. The opening was postponed from June 15.
 
Some 39 parliamentarians representing governments and opposition in each state will have a seat on the sub-regional legislative body that will be based at Parliament Building in the capital, St John's.
 
"It's a coming of age," said Dr Ishmael who felt the tone for the occasion was set by the OECS' first gold at the Olympics on Monday by 19-year-old Kirani James of Grenada in the 400m.
 
She further described OECS leaders as being "bold and visionary" by forging ahead with the integration process despite the current economic problems.
 
"At the very time that other countries retreated into sentiments much more protectionist and nationalistic in spirit, we saw that in CARICOM as well, OECS leaders said in turbulent times we need strength and unity and we need to be closer now and they accelerated," she noted.
 
The assembly has the authority to develop legislation relating to the common market, monetary policy, trade policy, maritime jurisdiction and boundaries, civil aviation, commercial policy, environmental policy and immigration policy.
 
These areas are critical in advancing the progress of OECS integration, according to the OECS Secretariat.
 
Friday's session begins at 4:15 and would be attended by dozens of dignitaries and representatives of most member states and affiliated territories.
 
It starts with the arrival on the Parade Square of OECS Chairman Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and host Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer.
 

Ali and Associates 2013 Annual Award and Designs Unveiling Antigua St. John's - Thursday 9th, May 2013 at the La Bussolla International Italian Restaurant, Ali & Associates held their 5th Annual Sponsors C... read more

The first order of business is the adoption of the assembly's Rules of Procedures followed by the election of a Speaker and Deputy Speaker. The two nominees are from St. Kitts & Nevis and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.
 
Statements will also be made by PM Spencer, the OECS Chairman, Montserrat Premier Reuben Meade on behalf of Non-Independent Members and St. Kitts & Nevis' Mark Brantley on behalf of Leaders of the Opposition.
 
St. Lucia's Kurt Thomas is the Clerk of the OECS Assembly.

• < Prev
• Next >