CONSISTENT WITH a collective pledge made last February when they met in Grenada for their 22nd half-yearly meeting, Heads of Government of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have agreed to a two-day ‘retreat’ in Guyana from May 21-22. Their intention is to take some “definitive decisions” that could result in “significantly arresting” the perceived mood among CARICOM citizens of cynicism and doubt over the future of the region’s 38-year-old economic integration movement.
That, at least, is the projection, and hope, of the Community’s current chairman, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, as expressed in our telephone conversation yesterday in signalling what he described as “shared optimism” among Heads of Government for the “re-energising of CARICOM”.
While understandably reluctant to go into details ahead of the coming “Guyana retreat”, to be hosted by President  Bharrat Jagdeo, the Grenadian Prime Minister was quite emphatic:  
“We can no longer afford the luxury”, he said, “of postponing the implementation of consensual decisions and frustrate the whole process of making a reality of major goals in economic and functioinal cooperation…”
The hope is that this argument in favour of  “re–energising” CARICOM is also being reflected in the “shared optimism” to which Prime Minister Thomas alluded in commenting on the coming retreat scheduled to take place in a privately managed lush tropical resort in the Mazaruni region and located some 20 flying miles away from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
It will be a “Heads only” affair, with the possibility of “plus one other” for each country’s delegation, and  the work programme is expected to revolve primarily on a draft document that outlines a ‘road map” to achieve the central objective of “re-energising”  
The working document, forwarded to all Heads of Government, in cooperation with the host government and the Community Secretariat, resulted from initial working sessions first held with chairman Thomas and a selected team of Caribbean scholars, diplomats and officials. Together, their collective expertise spans a good many years of CARICOM’s existence and with involvement at local and regional levels.
Recognising that the current “implementation deficit” that plagues progress within CARICOM must be speedily corrected, the working document is reported to have placed strong emphasis on a new governance system that would provide a “legal basis” for implementation of decisions within specific time-frames which all member governments must honour in a new spirit of “shared sovereignty”.
This proposed new approach on “shared sovereignty” would de-emphasise the expedient application of “sovereignty of states” argument often used to justify, or rationalize, failures by member countries to implement decisions unanimously adopted by a Heads of Government  Conference which remains the primary organ of the Community.  
Much emphasis has been placed on achieving the “re-energising” goal with the introduction of a new and effective governance system to deal with challenges of the time, as distinct from what prevailed even after the launch of the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that provides for implementation arrangements for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME)

GOVERNANCE
How they progress with the initiative for a legal framework to support defined implementation goals in a new dispensation on “governance” would, undoubtedly, impact on their choice of a new Secretary General to head contemplated administrative changes at the Community Secretariat.
The “search committee” established to help identify potential candidates for a successor to the retired Edwin Carrington as Secretary General has submitted a list of five potential nominees. But doubts persist about their suitability; while there also remains lingering skepticism over a proposed standing committee of CARICOM ambassadors as a useful enabling governance mechanism.

Alternative ideas for consideration at the coming retreat of Heads include  a proposal for the  introduction of an Executive Management system at the Community Secretariat.

INTEGRATION BENEFITS
The Heads are expected to engage in a “prioritising” exercise of the benefits of regional economic integration with proposed initiatives identified for region-wide simultaneous action, including such projects as placing  on a firm foundation the vital agricultural sector with food security as a core project.

FREE MOVEMENT OF NATIONALS
Having lost much goodwill over recurring poor examples in the handling of the free movement of the Community’s project on hassle-free intra-regional travel for nationals, as well as proper treatment in dealing with skilled categories of those approved for the right to live and work in any CARICOM state, the Heads have now been challenged to consider new approaches, including the implementation of an earlier unanimous decision for an “automatic six-month stay” for nationals in a member state.  

IMMEDIATE ACTION PLAN
In sketching a recommended feasible “immediate action plan”, the CARICOM leaders have been urged to include for consideration governance reform with an implementation regime as a core feature, and a prioritized regional economic integration plan with the private sectors and the Caribbean Development Bank as key players.

CIVIL SOCIETY
Creation of  a ”permanent forum” of non-state actors with formal access to the Councils of the Community as a means of mobilizing civil society for greater involvement, is also among the issues to be addressed at the “Mazaruni Retreat” in Guyana later this month.