OACPS wants unified EU bargaining as climate finance takes priority

By Marcus Bennett

The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), a bloc of 79 member states, is pressing the European Union (EU) for unified negotiations on trade and investment and more urgent climate-finance reform.

At the 65th session of its parliamentary assembly in Brussels on Sunday, 08 November 2026, Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa used his first session as assembly president to argue that unity will determine the bloc’s influence in trade, investment, climate finance and development.

What changes if the OACPS speaks with one voice?

Tayebwa said Europe’s strength comes from presenting a regional position rather than a collection of national demands. “When you are speaking, you are speaking for Africa, the Caribbean, for the Pacific, not just for your country,” he said. That approach, he added, was the only way to match European negotiating power.

The Samoa Agreement provides the framework for cooperation between the OACPS and the EU. It covers areas of mutual interest:

• Trade and investment
• Sustainable development and climate change
• Governance, peace and security

The agreement also gives member states a framework for pursuing development priorities with the EU, while providing the setting for Tayebwa’s effort to strengthen the assembly’s institutional structures and redefine its role in parliamentary diplomacy.

Implementation remains slow. Tayebwa urged legislators to push their national authorities so ratification moves from provision to full implementation. The assembly did not report how many of the 79 states had ratified the agreement or set a deadline.

What does this mean for trade and shipping?

For shippers, carriers and forwarders, the immediate freight effect remains unquantified. The meeting announcement included no TEU or tonnage figures, freight rates, vessel-capacity data or port-level measures, and announced no immediate change to trade rules. Its commercial relevance therefore rests on an institutional channel: a coordinated OACPS position on trade and investment within the Samoa Agreement.

Can the assembly pay for its own influence?

Tayebwa has pressed for mechanisms to finance assembly activities without depending entirely on EU support. He warned that institutional reforms and procedural changes would achieve little if the organisation lacked resources to implement its priorities, while pointing to members’ control over when and how the assembly meets. Regional groups backed a common parliamentary fund.

Pacific Regional Parliamentary Group President Renata Tamapua supported contributions that reflect member states’ financial capacities, geographical constraints and high travel costs. She also pressed for predictable, sustainable financing between formal sessions. Support did not settle the mechanics: no fund size or contribution schedule was announced.

OACPS Secretary-General Moussa Batraki told delegates that diversity should strengthen rather than obstruct collective action. He said the new parliamentary architecture under the Samoa Agreement makes unity more important while allowing each region to articulate its particular interests. Unity and regional autonomy remain competing objectives, although the assembly offered no test for measuring either.

Why does climate finance lead the EU agenda?

A later session resolved to place climate finance at the centre of the OACPS’s discussions with the EU. Member states called for reforms that allow vulnerable countries to respond to climate shocks without accumulating more debt. Tayebwa urged the group to demand climate justice and asked countries responsible for the largest share of global emissions to bear the cost of addressing climate change.

He said OACPS countries face severe climate consequences despite contributing relatively little to global emissions, putting their emissions contribution at no more than 6% on average. No country-by-country inventory accompanied that figure. He cited three regional patterns:

• Caribbean: rising sea levels, coastal erosion and damage to coral reefs
• Africa: drought, hunger and famine
• Pacific: increasingly difficult conditions facing member countries

By contrast, wealthier countries have greater financial resources to invest in adaptation and protect their populations. Delegates from several countries said the existing international financial system does not adequately account for the vulnerability of countries facing repeated climate disasters.

Barbados delegate Dwight Sutherland described climate change as an immediate threat to the economic stability of small island developing states, extending beyond environmental concerns to their ability to finance development. He backed the Bridgetown Initiative, which seeks to reform international financial arrangements so climate-vulnerable countries can obtain affordable financing, respond to disasters and protect development priorities.

“The Bridgetown Initiative seeks to reform the international financial architecture so that climate-vulnerable countries can respond to shocks, invest in resilience, and finance their development on affordable terms,” Sutherland said. No fund size, lending terms or financing gap accompanied the proposal in the assembly’s deliberations.

What will show whether the unity pledge produces results?

Three tests now sit before the OACPS: ratification of the Samoa Agreement, a workable parliamentary funding mechanism and a unified set of climate-finance demands for EU talks. The meeting supplied a governing principle and political statements, not implementation milestones.

Until member ratifications, contribution terms and EU financing commitments become concrete, the commercial effect remains a policy signal for trade and investment rather than a measurable change in freight costs or capacity. The bloc wants greater bargaining leverage, but its institutions and funding must catch up.