The anthem (and flag) of ASEAN - the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. A regional bloc of 10 nations.

The twenty-second Political Dialogue Meeting at Ministerial Level between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the European Union (EU) was held in Abuja on 30th November 2018.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has been signed by 44 African countries at a summit of the African Union in Kigali, Rwanda. / 10 of the African Union's (AU) 55 member states did not sign the agreement.

Articles on a variety of ASEAN related topics as it reaches 50.

Training Video Series #1: A Brief History of CARICOM and the CSME

Professor A.C. Grayling talks to the European Movement about the impact of Brexit on Britain's place in the world and how Trump and the far-right will threaten our long-term stability if we don't resist them.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) entered into force on May 30, 2019, with the first phase of the deal taking effect for 24 countries. An extraordinary summit on the trade agreement is planned for July 7, 2019 in Niamey, Niger, while Phase II negotiations on intellectual property rights (IPRs), investment and competition policy are expected to take at least another year.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was finally signed on the 5th of December 2020 by 54 out of 55 African Union member states, heralding the start of a new era of improved trade governance as intra-continental trade is boosted and African trade arrangements across regional economic communities are harmonised.

The African Union, comprised of 55 Member States, has prioritized enhancing regional integration and development, and in 2016 decided to move towards a “borderless” Africa with seamless intracontinental migration.

Regional integration in Africa has made tremendous strides. But the work is not done.

Following the unveiling of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, in March 2018, Africa is about to become the world’s largest free trade area: 55 countries merging into a single market of 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion. In this edition, we examine the benefits and challenges of a free trade area for countries and individual traders.

Africa is trading - just not within the continent. The African Union wants to change this and launch the world's largest free trade area. The plan has potential, but some member states are keeping the AU in suspense.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is one of the key priorities of Africa´s Agenda 2063 and a flagship project for the continent. Signed by 49 African countries and ratified by 14 countries so far, it needs 8 more ratifications to enter into force.

The African Economic Community (AEC) is an organization of African Union states establishing grounds for mutual economic development among the majority of African states. The stated goals of the organization include the creation of free trade areas, customs unions, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency.

AFRICAN countries officially began trading under a new continent-wide free trade area last Friday.

The African Medicines Agency (AMA) is a proposed specialised agency of the African Union (AU) intended to facilitate the harmonisation of medical regulation throughout the African Union. Following a similar model to that of the European Medicines Agency, it is intended to have a wide scope covering medicines, traditional medicine, and medical devices.

The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa.

For an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa. Official page of the AU.

The African Union (AU) is a continental body consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African Continent. It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999).

African Union law is the body of law comprising treaties, resolutions and decisions that have direct and indirect application to the member States of the African Union (AU).

While debates about the unpredictability of economic and political relationships between the EU and Britain continue to linger, thousands of miles away, the African Union (AU) is creating a close-knit relationship among its own 55 member nations.

It’s the second year of business on Africa’s biggest trading platform – the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) - and it isn’t going to be business as usual in the continent’s single biggest trading bloc.

After months of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the African Continental Free Trade Area launches, but full implementation of the historic pact may take years.

"We, the people of Africa and her Diaspora, united in diversity, young and old, men and women, girls and boys from all walks of life, deeply conscious of history, express our deep appreciation to all generations of Pan-Africanists. ... Agenda 2063, rooted in Pan Africanism ... a robust framework for addressing past injustices and the realisation of the 21st Century as the African Century."

The Andean Community (Spanish: Comunidad Andina, CAN) is a free trade area with the objective of creating a customs union comprising the South American countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

The Arab League, formally the League of Arab States, currently has 22 members.

The first major poll on attitudes to the EU conducted in reference to new UK electoral boundaries suggests that British voters have undergone a major transformation in their attitudes towards the European Union.

Robert Beckman speaks at a Forum on Conflicts in the South China Sea, 19-20/10/17.

While European businesses are increasingly more confident about investing in ASEAN, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is creating uncertainty for some business prospects according to a recent survey by the EU-ASEAN Business Council.

The offical website of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional bloc of 10 nations. Motto: "One Vision, One Identity, One Community"

The African Continental Free Trade Area will enter into force during the next African Union Summit slated for Niamey, Niger, in July, the East African reported on Tuesday.

A politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

Brexiters are often accused of living in the past. That is manifest in the now recurring Brexiter response to concerns about Brexit: ‘but we did perfectly well before’.

In this new Federal Trust video, Professor A.C.Grayling discusses the path by which he believes Brexit can and should be reversed.

What happens in the next three months, perhaps even the next couple of weeks, is going to shape the fate of the country for decades. If Brexit goes ahead, in any form, it will enact a profound misreading of the nature of the contemporary political and economic world and represent an unprecedented failure of British statecraft.

There was spontaneous applause as Africa’s largest economy Nigeria signed up to a deal that experts say could provide far-reaching benefits, but only if it is implemented properly.

The Caribbean Court of Justice is the judicial institution of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Established in 2005, it is based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

An association of 15 Caribbean nations devoted to economic integration and cooperation.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is a grouping of twenty countries: fifteen Member States and five Associate Members.

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Caribbean Community, there was a call for an anthem of CARICOM. The lyrics and music of Michele Henderson from Dominica has been successfully selected for the CARICOM Anthem.

The CARICOM Secretariat is pressing ahead with its public education programme regarding the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is a grouping of twenty countries: fifteen Member States and five Associate Members. It is home to approximately sixteen million citizens, 60% of whom are under the age of 30, and from the main ethnic groups of Indigenous Peoples, Africans, Indians, Europeans, Chinese, Portuguese and Javanese.

The basic premise of this book is that regional integration in Africa offers great promise in addressing endemic poverty and in advancing Africa’s integration in the global economy.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is a free trade area with twenty-one member states stretching from Tunisia to Eswatini. COMESA was formed in December 1994, replacing a Preferential Trade Area which had existed since 1981.

"COMESA (as defined by its Treaty) was established ‘as an organisation of free independent sovereign states which have agreed to co-operate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all their people’ and as such it has a wide-ranging series of objectives which necessarily include in its priorities the promotion of peace and security in the region."

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization of 10 post-Soviet republics in Eurasia formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

CIS is a regional intergovernmental organization of 10 post-Soviet republics in Eurasia formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The CIS encourages cooperation in economical, political and military affairs and has certain powers to coordinate trade, finance, lawmaking and security. It has also promoted cooperation on cross-border crime prevention.

The official website of the Andean Community.

The AfCFTA is one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. It is a high ambition trade agreement, with a comprehensive scope that includes critical areas of Africa’s economy, such as digital trade and investment protection, amongst other areas.

On March 21, 2018, in Kigali, Rwanda, Africa took the giant step of creating a large and integrated market by establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

We asked a series of policy experts to weigh in on these questions in an online conversation led by Dr. Natalegawa. Joining him are Rory Medcalf, Elina Noor, Dhruva Jaishankar, Evan Laksmana, and Walter Lohman.

The entry of DR Congo into the East African Community bloc will be a game changer. This is one of the sentiments from regional experts who say the country has immense resources vital to grow intra African trade within the EAC.

The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organization composed of six countries in the African Great Lakes region in eastern Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

he East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of six (6) Partner States, comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.

The Common Market is the second Regional Integration milestone of the East African Community (EAC), which has been in force since 2010, in line with the provisions of the EAC Treaty. It follows the Customs Union, which became fully-fledged in January 2010.

The Customs Union is the first Regional Integration milestone and critical foundation of the East African Community (EAC), which has been in force since 2005, as defined in Article 75 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community.

The East African Monetary Union (EAMU) is an important stage in the process of East African Community (EAC) Regional Integration.

The Political Federation is the ultimate goal of the EAC Regional Integration, the fourth step after the Customs Union, Common Market and Monetary Union. ... founded on three pillars: common foreign and security policies, good governance and effective implementation of the prior stages of Regional Integration.

The five countries in East African Community are pushing to eliminate their borders to enhance an integrated trading block. However, many challenges have to be overcome before making this a reality as CNBC Africa's Beatrice Gachenge discovered.

The East African Court of Justice (the Court), is one of the organs of the East African Community established under Article 9 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community.

The East African Federation is a proposed political union of the six sovereign states of the East African Community – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda – as a single federated sovereign state. In September 2018 a committee was formed to begin the process of drafting a regional constitution

In September 2018, the East African Community appointed a twelve member Committee of Experts to begin drafting a new constitution for an East African Confederation as a step towards full federation.

The East African Legislative Assembly (Assembly) is an organ of the East African Community; established under Article 9 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community.

A regional integration process of 10 central Africa nations.

In this work, Richard E. Mshomba offers an in-depth analysis of economic integration in Africa with a focus on the East African Community (EAC), arguably the most ambitious of all the regional economic blocs currently in existence in Africa.

In May 1979, ECOWAS member States adopted their first protocol relating to the Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment. It stipulated the right of ECOWAS citizens to enter, reside and establish economic activities in the territory of other member states and offers a three step roadmap of five years each to achieve freedom of movement of persons after fifteen years.

The ECOWAS Parliament also requested the authority of heads of state and government to take a firm stand regarding compliance with the 2020 deadline for the establishment of the ECOWAS single currency.

The launch of the operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is expected later this week, while the 15 ECOWAS countries, adopted ‘ECO’ as the name of the region’s planned shared currency, and agreed for a flexible currency regime towards improving integration and trade in the region.

he Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the European Union (EU) have agreed to strengthen cooperation in various fields including security, trade liberalisation and investments, human development and political governance.

"The Regulation defines a harmonized legal and tariff framework for roaming on public mobile communication networks within ECOWAS Member States and will solve the problem of high cost of roaming services in the region through the elimination or reduction of call tariffs, SMS charges and data costs, among others."

For a quarter of a century, water, land and ethnic conflicts have poisoned ties between the five ’stans. Now, even as the U.K. pulls away from the European Union, and other countries in the bloc mull their future in it, Central Asian nations are opening up to one another, taking steps to establish what in a few years could amount to their version of a Schengen zone.

Over the last 15 years, South American governments and regional organisations have adopted an expansive discourse about migration that entails welcoming all migrants and promoting the free movement rights of foreigners.

The decision to establish an African Medicines Agency is hailed as a turning point in efforts to advance regulatory oversight but also draws calls for caution. John Zarocostas reports.

"The African Union is a geo-political entity covering the entirety of the African continent. Its origin dates back to the First Congress of Independence African States, held in Accra, Ghana, from 15 to 22 April 1958."

The African Union (AU) has adopted a Free Movement Protocol and a draft plan of action to go with it.

A basic introduction to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and also the wider APEC grouping.

Free movement of people in the European Union (EU) is currently under attack by certain political and media sectors across Europe, with proposals arising on how to limit its scope. At the same time, other regions in the world are adopting free movement regimes.

The Latin American Integration Association / Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración / Associação Latino-Americana de Integração (LAIA / ALADI) is an international and regional scope organization.

Latin American Integration Association is an international and regional scope organization created on 12 August 1980 by the 1980 Montevideo Treaty replacing the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA). 13 member nations.

African leaders met on Sunday to launch a continental free-trade zone that if successful would unite 1.3 billion people, create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of development.

The Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR for its Spanish initials) is a regional integration process, initially established by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Mercosur has been the most significant initiative for a deeper and more constructive integration in South America. Despite the fact that it is mainly known as a common market, its contribution to social stability is absolutely notable.

Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque's Message for a CARICOM Day Event by the CARICOM Caucus of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations.

We are the development agency of the African Union, coordinating and executing priority regional and continental development projects to promote regional integration towards the accelerated realisation of Agenda 2063 – Africa’s vision and action plan. We are mandated to strengthen capacity of Member States and regional bodies.

After four years of talks, African leaders announced an agreement to form a 55-nation trade bloc.

While tariffs are widely eliminated in regional trade agreements, genuine market integration requires addressing non-tariff measures (NTMs)

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is an International Inter-governmental Organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal rights, and the encouragement of good governance among independent and non-independent countries in the Eastern Caribbean.

The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) is an inter-governmental organization that aims to enhance cooperation between countries and territories of the Pacific Ocean. It was founded in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum (SPF).

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) is one of the organs of the African Union (AU) as set out by the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja Treaty). The Parliament is intended as a platform for people from all African states to be involved in discussions and decision-making on the problems and challenges facing the continent.

The African Union, or AU, is a pan-African organisation whose goal is to propel a united continent towards peace and prosperity.

This collection of essays by various authors covers the regional blocs in Africa including COMESA, SADC and ECOWAS. It compares and contrasts them with the EU, ASEAN and MERCOSUR.

"The Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa group together individual countries in subregions for the purposes of achieving greater economic integration."

"...this book takes a model from the EU, North America and other sub-regions around the world to illustrate how regionalism could be successful in the Caribbean."

Rwandan president Paul Kagame says the African Union could become a strong body as the European Union despite well documented hurdles.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established with the signing of the SAARC Charter in Dhaka on 8 December 1985. SAARC comprises of eight Member States: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Secretariat of the Association was set up in Kathmandu on 17 January 1987.

Video gives details around SADC areas of concern and potential improvements.

Central American Integration System Anthem / "La Granadera" / Himno de la SICA (Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana)

Back in 1999, under what is known as the Yamoussoukro Decision, African countries planned to free their skies for air travel. Last Sunday the African Union (AU) took its first big step towards this goal, launching the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM).

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) was established as a development coordinating conference (SADCC) in 1980 and transformed into a development community in 1992.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is a Regional Economic Community comprising 16 Member States. Established in 1992, SADC is committed to Regional Integration and poverty eradication within Southern Africa through economic development and ensuring peace and security.

Electricity demand in member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is expected to grow between 5 to 6 percent yearly from 2016-2020. In recognition of this surge in demand, the idea of an ASEAN Power Grid (APG) was mooted in 1997, as part of the ASEAN Vision 2020.

Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to the Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment (AU Free Movement Protocol) adopted in 2018.

The Africa-EU Partnership is the formal channel through which the European Union and the African continent work together. It is based on the Joint Africa-EU Strategy adopted by Heads of State and Government at the second EU-Africa Summit in 2007.

An extract from 'A Call for Revolution: An Appeal to the Young of the World'.

85% of world is joining trading blocs... as we decide to leave

But while free trade is under threat in much of the world, African countries are heading in the other direction: the continent is on track to create the largest free trade agreement by population that the world has seen since the 1995 creation of the World Trade Organization.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism - the first of its kind - offers a systematic and wide-ranging survey of the scholarship on regionalism, regionalization, and regional governance.

The evolving geopolitics in the South Pacific were on full display at the 50th PIF.

The Africa-EU Partnership is the formal political channel through which the European Union (EU) and the African continent work together, engage in political and policy dialogues and define their cooperative relationship. It was established in 2000 at the first Africa-EU Summit in Cairo.

Volume 2 - Proceedings of the First Congress of African Economists / Les Actes du Premier Congrès des Économistes Africains.

Smart Africa’s vision is to transform Africa into a single digital market through a number of carefully selected interventions within the field of ICT and leverage the continental economies of scale, as Africa seeks to develop further.

The UK’s post-European Union (EU) membership trade negotiations mean that Brexit is anything but the finished article.

The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental institution bringing together 43 countries to promote dialogue and cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean region

At this point in Churchill's speech he addresses the phenomena, now termed 'regionalism', of the forming of regional blocs of nations.

As many as 15 countries in West Africa have agreed to adopt a single currency, called ECO, next year.

Fifteen countries in West Africa have agreed to adopt a single currency next year called the eco.

As part of its plans to make Africa a more integrated continent, leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have adopted the name 'ECO' for a planned single currency to be used in the region.

The Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) is a 10-member international body that represents more than 500 million people living in the region.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (more commonly known as ASEAN) is an intergovernmental organization aimed primarily at promoting economic growth and regional stability among its members.

An overview of the operations and governance of the Eastern Caribbean Economic Union and the benefits for the Member States.

What progress is Africa's free trade pact making in eliminating barriers to trade, deepening economic integration and driving forward the continent's development?

Brexit supporters thought that the EU was obsessed with this country, part of our sense of exceptionalism. Not so, as Kate Moore discovers. / Travelling across Europe provides the opportunity to quiz Germans, Swedes, French, Spanish and UK nationals living or travelling abroad about their attitude to the UK and its departure from the EU.