The
UWI Regional
Headquarters, Jamaica. Thursday, 23 July 2020 – A
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between The University of
the West Indies (The UWI) and the European University Institute
(EUI), is expected to deepen ties between the Caribbean and Europe
and help The UWI protect the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in the
European Union (EU).

Signed
virtually on July 14, 2020, by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles,
Vice-Chancellor of The UWI and Professor Renaud Dehousse, President
of the EUI, the agreement includes the establishment of a
research centre. That centre will help to promote inter-regional and
intra-regional development and encourage discourse on how
transnational and global issues impact the Caribbean Region and
Europe.

The
UWI and EUI partnership foresees collaboration in areas of studies
and research common to both institutions. Areas of focus will include
sustainable development, multilateral trade, gender equality,
security, environment and climate change, migration, energy, regional
integration processes and transnational governance.

Last
year, Vice-Chancellor Beckles saw the economic and financial
vulnerability of CARICOM as a consequence of Brexit and began to
pursue a strategy to position The UWI in the EU as a strategic
response.  Noting that the region needs greater policy support
within the EU, in light of the EU downgrade of the region's finance
sector, and poor responses of regional entrepreneurs to the Economic
Partnership Agreement (EPA), he noted that The UWI had to step up to
create an academic research and business advisory hub in the EU. 
After a year of negotiations, the EUI agreed to host a joint UWI-EU
centre. “It will be anchored in Florence, Italy and will provide
services to our foreign service community, business groups, advocacy
leaders in issues such as public health, climate change, economics
equity for small island nations”, Vice-Chancellor Beckles
explained.

Referring
to the relationship between Europe and the Caribbean over 500 years
as “one of the most intense historical experiences between two
parts of the world and the basis of modernity as we know it”,
Vice-Chancellor Beckles said “It is a
relationship that has to be sustained within the context of its
positive contributions, mutually to Europe and to the Caribbean and
of course to the wider world.  So, it is perfectly normal
therefore that universities ought to be coming together within this
context to sustain the benefits and to provide a vision for the
future of this relationship.”

Pointing
to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), defined by the United
Nations, he said, “they have certainly created a context within
which universities are asked to become activists in the pursuit of
these very laudable goals that are intended to move our cultures and
our civilizations ahead within the finest values of humanity,
transcending issues of trade and also focusing interest on culture
and broadly speaking, development.”

Noting
that joint activities by universities are very significant in
effective achievement of the SDGs, Vice-Chancellor Beckles said that
The UWI, for example, has been selected by the International
Association of Universities to provide global advocacy around some of
these sustainable goals, in particular, goal #13 which focuses on
climate smart issues. 

“As
we seek therefore to bring our activism in line with our teaching,
our research, our advocacy, and the creation of partnerships that
will enable all of us to make a greater contribution to the world and
to humanity, this context is very, very significant.  So we are
honoured and it is a tremendous pleasure for us to begin this
partnership agreement with the EUI.  We are of one mind; we have
a common vision.   Against the background of a heritage of
over 500 years, it is logical therefore that we should be activists
on many areas of trade, of cultural exchange and of course within the
context of the sustainable development goals”, Vice-Chancellor
Beckles declared.

Professor
Dehousse said that given The UWI’s excellent reputation, “the
partnership is a kind of bridgehead in the broader Caribbean and
Latin American world and represents an opening towards a region of
the world in which we are still developing contacts.” He added that
“Europe’s problems today are no longer confined to what is going
on within its borders, and it is absolutely indispensable for us to
open up towards other regions of the world, as well as to other kinds
of actors.”

Work
has begun on the implementation of the MOU at both The UWI and the
EUI.