(CARICOM Secretariat) The Caribbean Community Secretariat will convene a series of meetings next week at its headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana from 4 – 7 April 2011, which will focus on the free movement of persons and contingent rights in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). These meetings, which are being funded with financial resources received from the European Union under the 9th EDF, will focus on the follow-up of several mandates received from the Conference of Heads of Government, in particular the decisions relating to the full and harmonised implementation of the various free movement regimes and the conduct of a comprehensive study to determine the impact of free movement and other forms of migration on member tates.
The comprehensive study on the impact of free movement and migration was conducted in 2010, also with funds provided by the EU under the 9th EDF, and was the subject of an earlier meeting of free movement officials in June 2010, to discuss the outcome. Officials will next week discuss and decide on the recommendations, which must be submitted to the Conference of Heads of Government for approval.
The officials will also discuss the implementation of the free movement regime in member states and review the approved free movement categories with a view to enhancing these in order to greater facilitate CARICOM nationals who are moving in the CSME.
The series of meetings will be concluded on  April7 with the Fourth Meeting on Contingent Rights. Discussions will focus on the status of the negotiations of the rights to be included in a Protocol on Contingent Rights and the recent decision of the Conference of Heads of Government in February 2011, that the Protocol must be negotiated as a matter of priority.