Above: the OECS Regional Assembly in Antigua
By the Caribbean Journal staff
The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Assembly will hold its first official sitting on Tuesday.
The regional assembly, consists of a group of appointed government and opposition Parliamentarians from each OECS member state.
It was inaugurated in Antigua in the summer of 2012, under the Revised Treaty of Basseterre.
On Monday, the OECS will hold a seminar to discuss the rules of procedure for the OECS Assembly, alson in St John’s.
As CARICOM integration has been increasingly criticized for its slow pace, the subregional OECS bloc has been largely praised for its own integration efforts — from free movement to the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.
At the CARICOM Summit in Haiti last month, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves told Caribbean Journal that, while the OECS would not supersede CARICOM, “we’re moving faster than everybody else.”