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GV Delegates arriving by car at conference hall in Freeport, Bahamas, PAN TO large crowd on lawns outside conference hall.
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SV INTERIOR Delegates seated.
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CU INTERIOR Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling speaking in English. (2 SHOTS)
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PINDLING:"Because countries which now comprise the African, Caribbean and Pacific Groups of States shared Monsieur Monnet's vision of an enlightened progressive European Community playing a major role in world affairs, it became possible to conclude the Convention of Lome. This convention sought to establish for the first time a new trading relationship, based on mutual interest, trust and confidence, between Europe and a large number of states in various stages of economic development and which, before their relatively recent independence, were subject to varying degrees of political and economic control by one or other of the present member states o the European Economic Community. Today, in 1979, basic issues are still outstanding and, in the intervening years, have become more entwined with the need for a whole new international economic order. The gravity of those issues has been compounded by the enforced re-ordering of priorities dictated by the impact of energy on the national economies of ACP states."



The conference was held to set the outlines of a new pact on trade and development aid to come into force in March next year. French Foreign Minister Jean Francois-Poncet, current President of the EEC Council of Ministers, was among the EEC representatives. The ACP also wanted the EEC to extend the list of products from ACP countries given preferential treatment under the Export Earnings Stabilisation Scheme (STABEX).




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Background: Fifty seven developing countries and the nine members of the European Economic Community have held a three day conference in the Bahamas to work out a new trade and aid pact. But the conference between the EEC and the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) was inconclusive. The most controversial issues will be dealt with when the sixty-six nations meet in Brussels on May the 24th. The developing countries urged the EEC to increase its aid from 4-point-65 billion dollars to 13-point-5 billions. But Common Market officials said it was not likely to increase by much more than a third.

SYNOPSIS: Delegates at the conference hall heard Bahamas Prime Minister, Lynden O. Pindling, pay tribute to Jean Monnet, the architect of the European Economic Community who died recently. Monsieur Monnet worked towards the first ACP-EEC meeting in Togo, West Africa, in 1975.