CARICOM COMPLETES COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF COMMUNITY COUNCIL

The Sixth Meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council of Ministers, the second highest Organ of the Community, concluded with a "highly successful" retreat at the luxurious Royal Westmoreland Golf Club on Barbados' west coast on 20^th June, 2000.

Council Chairman, St. Kitts and Nevis Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of CARICOM Affairs, Mr. Sam Condor, told a press briefing shortly after the retreat that delegates undertook a comprehensive review of the role of the Council in the discharge of its responsibilities.

The Body, which comprises mainly of CARICOM Foreign Affairs and Community Relations Ministers, is primarily responsible for the development of the Community's strategic planning and coordination in economic integration, functional cooperation and external relations.

Delegates examined the structure and function of the Council and considered ways in which that and other organs and institutions of CARICOM could function more effectively in implementing decisions to advance the objectives of the Community. They also focussed on the greater involvement of civil society in the overall development thrust of CARICOM.

Coming out of the retreat, Mr. Condor said the delegates also looked at the idea of "fixed scheduling" of meetings throughout a calendar year in order to systematically deal with critical issues affecting the Community before forwarding sound recommendations to the Heads of Government. The Council's recommendations will go before the 21^st Summit of CARICOM , the agenda for which was fine-tuned by the Ministers of Council. The Conference will be held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines from 2-5 July, 2000.

The two-day Meeting also discussed the staging of CARIFESTA VII in St. Kitts and Nevis, 17-26 August, 2000; the integration of Haiti into the Community, and heard a summary report from Sir John Compton, Head of the CARICOM Electoral Observer Mission to Haiti.

Haiti is a provisional member of CARICOM.