GLENYS KINNOCK, champion of the Third World poor, is to lead 70 members of the European parliament to a Barbados resort for a conference debating development and deprivation. During the five-day trip, costing taxpayers more than £200,000, the MEPs will meet politicians from some of the world’s poorest nations.The official agenda is to address water shortages, aid and EU trade policies, but away from the conference hall delegates will indulge in some of the island’s luxurious recreations.
Kinnock, who co-chairs the African Caribbean Pacific-EU (ACP-EU) joint parliamentary assembly, will be offered accommodation in the island’s exquisite hotels, including the Amaryllis Beach, Tamarind Cove and Turtle Beach. Many MEPs will be “slumming it” in the Colony Club, a luscious resort that offers poolside suites with four-poster beds and four freshwater lagoons.
The former gentleman’s club is billed as the perfect honeymoon location and its website portrays a tempting picture of “seven acres of palm-filled gardens on a glorious stretch of Caribbean beach”. Normal rates range from $357 to $657 a night.
The assembly kicks off with a “project visit” next Sunday. According to sources at the Barbados embassy in Brussels, this is an EU euphemism for a four-hour chartered cruise aboard the Harbour Master — a 100ft ship billed as “the longest floating bar in the Caribbean”. The four-deck-high “floating entertainment centre” also sports a 70ft waterslide and an onboard craft village. “It will be a relaxed thing. They shouldn’t have to work too much on it,” said an embassy official.
Delegates will also be able to choose between three “workshops” on Tuesday afternoon — one on the rum industry. MEPs who miss out on the trip will be handed a goody bag containing rum and other Bajan specialities. Samuel Chandler, permanent secretary for foreign trade in Barbados, said this weekend that he believed the trip was scheduled to visit the West Indies rum distillery.
Later that evening the Bajan parliament will host a reception complete with local dancers and calypso singers.
The politicians’ spouses will have plenty to do too. Their programme includes water sports and a trip to the “eighth wonder of the world”, Harrison’s Cave, a Ÿ-mile-long limestone cavern. “We can’t just have them sitting round. While their husbands are at work, the spouses can play,” said Chandler.
However, he declined to give details of the rest of the entertainment programme. “We consider our hospitality private. We do not need to publicise it because it can give the wrong impression with different audiences,” he said. Despite the free hospitality, MEPs are entitled to claim a further £90 a day in expenses.
The ACP-EU assembly first met in 2000 to bring together MEPs with their counterparts from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to talk about democracy, trade and human rights. It has no executive authority. The twice yearly meeting, which rotates between Europe, Africa and the Caribbean, has become renowned for its lavish treatment of MEPs. The 70 members expected in Barbados will be accompanied by 84 officials, including 30 interpreters.
The appeal of Barbados has lured unusually large numbers of delegates. Only 52 attended a meeting in 2004 in the Hague, 54 went to Edinburgh and 55 on the trip to Mali last year.
Seven British MEPs, are expected to attend and last week one explained they had “no choice” about the location. “Everybody laughs when they hear it’s in Barbados,” said Fiona Hall, a Lib Dem MEP. “But why shouldn’t they organise the meeting in the Caribbean just because of European sensitivities?” Kinnock, who is married to Lord Kinnock,and her spokesman declined to returns calls.