BRUSSELS, Belgium (CMC) — The 12-member Eminent Persons Group (EPG) is to lobby African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Governments on the future form and direction of the 79-member ACP as an organisation.

“The EPG is of the view that its report should avoid recommending grand plans that were unachievable, but should instead come up with realistic, doable and reachable targets for the ACP group to function in the future,” said a progress report submitted to the ACP Council of Ministers meeting held in Kenya last week.

The report noted that political buy-in to the strategies proposed by the EPG is vital for the success of the group.

“Sustaining political will and commitment will only be achieved if there are common interests that can keep the ACP Group together,” said the group which includes former Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo.

“One of the emerging conclusions drawn from various consultations with stakeholders is that there exists strong political will that the ACP Group should remain, but be reinvented in line with the new world paradigm, and focus on a few core and niche areas that the Group can deal with better than existing institutions,” said the report.

The ACP Group includes 79 member states from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, originally brought together due to their historic relations with the European Community. Launched as an intergovernmental association in its own right in 1975, ACP members are party to a partnership framework with the European Union that covers development finance, trade and political dialogue between the EU and ACP members.

Since October 2013, the EPG has held consultations on the issue with government and non-government officials, civil society and business communities of five of the six ACP regions.