Leopold Quarter: The OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly opened its second plenary under the Samoa Agreement at the European Parliament on 9 November 2026, with African, Caribbean and Pacific lawmakers demanding fairer trade and debt-free climate finance from the EU. Around 160 parliamentarians are meeting until 13 November to debate security, oceans, development money and critical raw materials.
Co-president Thomas Tayebwa, Deputy Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, set the tone on day one. He told the OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly that partner states want trade rules that add value at home, not deals that lock them into exporting raw commodities.
“The OACPS would like to see an economic partnership that delivers tangible benefits, including investment, local value addition” and jobs, Tayebwa said, according to Nile Post. He also urged the EU to deliver climate finance that is affordable and does not deepen debt burdens.
Tayebwa pointed to droughts, flash floods and rising sea levels across member states of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States. He also pressed governments to accelerate ratification of the Samoa Agreement, which partners have applied provisionally since January 2024.
Portuguese MEP Francisco Assis of the Socialists and Democrats co-chairs the OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly with Tayebwa. The two co-presidents briefed journalists in the Parliament’s Anna Politkovskaya press room on the opening afternoon. The OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly brings together 78 representatives from OACPS states and 78 Members of the European Parliament.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola opened the session alongside Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta, the guest of honour. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey and Irish Minister of State Frank Feighan, speaking for the Irish Council Presidency, also addressed members.
Ramos-Horta used his speech to call for dialogue over confrontation. “Peace may come at a heavy cost, but continuing war is not a win-win certainty—it is a lose-lose option,” he said, according to the Timorese news agency TATOLI.
The week’s agenda covers international security and multilateralism, ocean protection, financing for development and critical raw materials. Members will also examine the EU’s Global Gateway investment strategy, which Brussels presents as an alternative to Chinese infrastructure lending across Africa and the Pacific.
Critical raw materials give the OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly debate an edge. The EU needs cobalt, lithium, graphite and other inputs for batteries and defence, and many deposits sit in OACPS countries that want processing plants built locally rather than ore shipped abroad.
The OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly also hosts a youth forum, a women’s forum and a consultation with civil society groups. Those side events feed proposals into the resolutions that members negotiate during the plenary week.
The Samoa Agreement replaced the Cotonou Agreement as the legal framework for relations between the EU and 79 OACPS states. It sets out a common foundation plus three regional protocols for Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, and it created the joint parliamentary body alongside regional assemblies.
Ratification still lags in several capitals, which delays the treaty’s full entry into force. Tayebwa’s call for faster ratification reflects concern among OACPS members that the partnership is moving more slowly than its promises.
The European Parliament’s OACPS-EU assembly page publishes the agenda and adopted texts. When the OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly closes on 13 November, its resolutions will show how far Brussels is willing to move on trade terms and climate finance.
