Impact Study: UNESCO-Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals

Joint institutions under the EPA

The EPA foresees the timely establishment of implementation bodies (in articles 227–232). Five main institutions (see Table 1) have been established in this context: the Joint CARIFORUM-EU Council; the CARIFORUM-EU Trade and Development Committee; the Joint CARIFORUM- EU Parliamentary Committee, the Joint Consultative Committee and the Special Committee on Customs Cooperation and Trade Facilitation. The establishment of the Consultative Committee, in particular, recognizes the necessary involvement of non-governmental actors in the implementation of the EPA. All five implementation bodies are now in place, have adopted rules of procedure and havemet, although infrequently (theTrade and Development Committee has met most often - a total of 8 times, with the last meeting held in December 2018). Additional bodies have been created to address the Parties’ specific needs and concerns, such as the Special Committee on Customs Cooperation and Trade Facilitation; the Technical Sub-Committee on Development Cooperation and the Special Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries, which was only formally established in late 2017. The 2014 First Five-Year Review 14 concluded that the services provisions of the EPA have not yet yielded the anticipated benefits. As a result, both sides have agreed to work towards ensuring the full potential of the provisions and to explore measures that support capacity development for CARIFORUM services suppliers in gaining better access to the EU market, as well as in addressing challenges associated with the collection of services trade data (which has proven particularly difficult during the review process).

26 Culture in the CARIFORUM-EU EPA

14. See http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2014/october/tradoc_152825.pdf