By Vernon Daley, Staff ReporterCARIBBEAN COMMUNITY leaders ended their four-day summit last night with an agreement to set up a commission to implement decisions taken by the 15-member regional group.
A declaration, called 'The Rose Hall Declaration' issued at the end of the summit also gave the blessing of leaders to member states, which might seek to involve themselves in some form of political union.
The commission is based on a similar concept for implementing decisions within the European Union, and was recommended to Heads by a Prime Ministerial sub-committee, chaired by Dr. Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
"We plan to advance the matter further later this year when the Prime Ministerial expert group submits recommendations to us on the precise modalities for the operation of this executive body," new chairman of CARICOM, Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, told journalists last night.
Those recommendations are expected to be made to the Heads when they meet in Barbados this November. At that time, the group will also lay out a tentative timetable for the establishment of the
commission.
Mr. Patterson, however, suggested that the Heads were pushing to have the body in place by 2004.
The executive body will initially focus on implementing measures to establish the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, which is set to come on stream by 2005.
During the opening ceremony for the summit on Wednesday, the leaders stressed that they needed to start implementing decisions, as residents of the region were growing impatient with the slow pace of implementation of decisions.
Yesterday, Mr. Patterson said he was pleased with the talks, which dealt with a number of issues, including regional air travel, the Caribbean Court of Justice, the 2007 Cricket World Cup, as well as the controversial decision of the United States to cut military aid to six CARICOM countries which refused to exempt Americans from the International Criminal Court.
