VOLUNTARY PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT
BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN UNION
AND THE COOPERATIVE REPUBLIC OF GUYANA
ON FOREST LAW ENFORCEMENT, GOVERNANCE AND TRADE
IN TIMBER PRODUCTS INTO THE EUROPEAN UNION
THE COOPERATIVE REPUBLIC OF GUYANA, hereinafter referred to as “Guyana”, and THE EUROPEAN UNION, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Union”
Hereinafter referred to together as “the Parties”,
CONSIDERING the close working relationship between the Union and Guyana, particularly in the context of the Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, on one part, and the European Community and its Member States, on the other, signed in Cotonou on 23 June 20001, revised in Luxembourg on 25 June 2005, hereinafter referred to as “the Cotonou Agreement”;
CONSIDERING the Joint Caribbean-EU Partnership Strategy developed on the basis of the decision of the May 2010 EU-Caribbean Forum of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (CARIFORUM) Summit held in Madrid and elaborated jointly by the EU and CARIFORUM countries;
CONSIDERING the Economic Partnership Agreement between the CARIFORUM States and the European Community;
CONSIDERING the Communication from the Commission to the Council of the Union and the European Parliament “Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) – Proposal for an EU Action Plan” as a first step towards addressing urgent issues of illegal logging and associated trade;
REAFFIRMING the commitment to the Charter of the United Nations and having regard to the principles articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
REAFFIRMING the commitment to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
REAFFIRMING the importance of the principles and commitments set out in the Declaration of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of 2015…Click here for more information