Basseterre -- Dec. 30, 2009 --  Leaders from the sub-regional Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) joined St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister and current Chairman of the grouping on Tuesday in signing a treaty to establish an Economic Union.

“Today is a great day. It is a day of profound historical import for the Governments and peoples that constitute the OECS – for it is today that we commit our countries to an even closer and deeper union. And we do this by signing off on a new treaty – the Treaty of Basseterre establishing the OECS Economic Union,” said Prime Minister Douglas in the feature address during the one-hour long ceremony at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).

Dr. Douglas noted that the nations of the OECS are facing domestic, hemispheric and global challenges with profound implications in the economic, political and socio-cultural; spheres. And so it is essential; that we seek out and identify ways of increasing our resiliency so as to ensure our continued viability, our continued relevance and our continued successes nationally, regionally and internationally,’ said Prime Minister Douglas.

He said over the next few months final construct will be pursued in the various capitals when the institutions and Parliaments of the Member States attaching their signatures to the Treaty of Basseterre Establishing the OCES Economic Union, will be engaged in the next few months in the ratification of the Treaty.

Prime Minister Douglas said he regards the signing of the accord as a “fundamental philosophical transformation and political commitment to deepening the level of integration among member states."

The CMC quotes Grenada’s Prime Minister Hon. Tillman Thomas as describing Tuesday’s signing ceremony as “historic and significant” adding “our recent experience with the global economic problem (makes us) recognize how important it is for us to consolidate and deepen the economic union and the integration process in the OECS.

“This is a very significant occasion we need to have an authority to bind us in terms of decision making and the new treaty provides for a Commission and also an Assembly,” he added.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Ralph Gonsalves said the treaty puts more authority “at the center of the regional integration movement.

“This draft treaty has been under discussion for quite some time…and having initialed it we would then go to our respective cabinets and then at another meeting do the final signature and then make all the arrangements for ratification and parliamentary approval,” he added.

Barbados is not a member of the OECS, but Prime Minister, the Hon. David Thompson, who is attended the signing ceremony, said that event “represents a wheel within a wheel within the entire regional integration movement.

“I myself, speaking on behalf of Barbados see it as a very positive step and something I think can be a catalyst for the propelling of our regional integration movement.”

But he said it was even more important given the current global economic environment. “I think it is a sensible recognition by the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States working together and pooling their resources as well as harmonising aspects of their business and economic environment.”

Caribbean Community CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington said that any process which intensifies the integration process in the region should be welcomed.

“In that regard the OECS is showing the way and they are moving much closer which is certain to benefit not only the OECS…but all in the wider Caribbean.

“At minimum it sets an example for CARICOM, which if it follows suit will also be another benefit from the OECS action today.”

Dominica’s Prime Minister Hon. Roosevelt Skerritt who missed the ceremony but was represented by Ambassador His Excellency Charles Maynard told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that he fully supports the efforts to take the sub-region to the next level.

Skerritt, who was recently given a fresh mandate to run the affairs of his country, said that now that the campaign is over he intends to put a lot of energy into the economic union.

“I believe it is a good thing for the region. We can’t be moving across the world talking as small independent nations. We have to work together to bring greater social and economic development to our people.

“I mean 600,000 people, you really can’t achieve much with that especially in a globalised context and therefore we have to work together to see what we can do together so that there could be more development for our people.”

Skerritt said he was hopeful that the population of the sub-region would be supportive of this new initiative and that the signing of the treaty would “signal our seriousness about moving the process forward and that hopefully we could have it implemented by June 2010”.

The Dominica Prime Minister acknowledged that some OECS countries may be holding general elections between the period of the signing of the treaty and its implementation, but that he is “hopeful that our people can keep it on the front burner.

“What I have sought to do is to bring the issue of the economic union to the political platform,” he told CMC.

Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Sir Dwight Venner, speaking at a function in St. Lucia on Monday night, said that he expects the process for deeper integration among the sub-region to be advanced with the signing of the new treaty.

“We must create a vision of the OECS as an area of peace, prosperity and tranquility where the environment is protected, pristine and clean.

“It must be a place where access to education, health, sporting and community facilities of high quality must be open to all; and where opportunities for careers in politics, business, administration, science, arts, culture and sporting activities are available to all citizens,” he said.

The signing of the agreement comes 28 years after the leaders signed the original treaty establishing the OECS.

Only Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory and a founding member of the sub-regional grouping, has said that it will not be able to sign the accord.

"Although the treaty has now been redrafted to allow Montserrat to retain its full membership and all the rights and duties appertaining before the coming into force of the new treaty, Montserrat is not yet in a position to sign on 29 Dec., 2009 because our internal approval process has not yet been completed," Claude Hogan, director of regional affairs and trade, said.

"It is envisaged that when Montserrat signs on to the new treaty it will continue to need entrustments for accession within the union on a case by case basis," Hogan added.

Article 5.1 of the new treaty also provides that "a member state which is not an independent state undertakes to enact legislation to provide for the reception into its law of the legislation made under this Article."

The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.

These islands, except the BVI, already share a number of institutions including a Central bank and a common judiciar