Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - St. Maarten is now the Regional Authorising Officer (RAO) for the 11th EDF Regional Program.
The announcement was made at the Annual Overseas Countries and Territories Association (OCTA) Ministerial Conference and the 13th Annual OCTA/EU Forum from February 25 to 27 in Tortola.
Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs signed the ratification document formalising this status.
This is the result of a nomination proposed by Montserrat in 2014 and ratified by the remaining 11 Caribbean OCTs in a vote by consensus.
In this function St. Maarten will be responsible for the coordination, cooperation, programming, implementation and closing of the projects selected within the area of Sustainable Energy and Marine Biodiversity that will benefit all Caribbean OCTs as well as the wider Caribbean region.
A delegation from St. Maarten attended a series of events at the conference, namely, the Regional Conference for Caribbean Overseas Countries and Territories, Trilateral Consultations, OCTA Ministerial Conference and the OCT-EU Forum. These meetings are a yearly requirement for the Overseas Countries and Territories.
The St. Maarten Delegation comprised of five (5) persons namely Prime Minister Gumbs who is also the and Territorial Authorising Officer (TAO) of Sint Maarten, he was accompanied by Mr. Marc Arnold, Deputy Territorial Authorizing Officer and Department Head Interior and Kingdom Relations, Ms. Khalilah Peters, Department Head of Foreign Relations, Ms. Olivia Lake, Policy Advisor Donor Coordination and EU Relations and Ms. Carol Voges, St. Maarten Representative in the Netherlands for EU Relations/OCTA Treasurer.
The Regional ConferenceThe European Commission, in cooperation with the Chairman of the Association of Overseas Countries and Territories (????) and Premier of British Virgin Islands hosted the Regional Conference for Caribbean Overseas Countries and Territories, on February 23 and 24, 2015.
The outcome of the meeting delivered the topics for the 11th EDF OCT Regional Program which were Sustainable Energy and Marine Biodiversity.
The regional program will mobilize a grant envelope of € 40 million over the coming six years.
