Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States
Regional · OECS
Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory rather than a state. It signed the Treaty of Basseterre on 18 June 1981 beside six neighbours, two of which reached independence only later. Article 2 of that treaty admits territories as well as states, which is why the organisation, its currency, its court and its right of indefinite stay do not stop where sovereignty does.
7 countries
Common questions
Questions about OECS
Which countries are in the OECS?
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines hold full membership, which the organisation calls protocol membership. Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint Martin are associate members, and the organisation says they are treated as full members for many of its activities. Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory; the other protocol members are sovereign states.
Is Montserrat a full member of the OECS?
Yes. Article 2(3) of the Treaty of Basseterre provides that a territory listed in the treaty may be admitted as a full member although it is not a sovereign independent State, by unanimous decision of the heads of government. Montserrat was a British colony when the treaty was signed on 18 June 1981 and is a British Overseas Territory now, and the organisation lists it among the protocol members to which the free movement regime applies.
What is the Revised Treaty of Basseterre?
The treaty that replaced the founding one. It was signed on 18 June 2010 at the fifty-first meeting of the Authority in Saint Lucia, twenty-nine years to the day after the original, and entered into force on 21 January 2011. It establishes the OECS Economic Union: a single financial and economic space in which goods, capital and people move freely among the protocol members.
Can OECS citizens live and work in another member state?
A citizen of a protocol member may enter another on a government-issued photographic document, a driving licence, a national identity card or a voter card, without a passport, and receives an indefinite stay stamp at the immigration desk. That stamp carries the right to reside, take work, establish a business or provide a service, with no further permit required, and a driving licence issued at home is valid across the area.
How is the OECS different from CARICOM?
Every member here also belongs to the Caribbean Community, most of them since 1974, so the question is what the smaller body adds. It adds shared institutions rather than a wider market: the East Caribbean dollar issued by one central bank at Basseterre, a supreme court sitting at Castries whose Court of Appeal travels to the islands, and free movement on an identity card. CARICOM reaches from Belize to Suriname and does none of those things.
Sources
- Treaty establishing the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States · The text of the Treaty of Basseterre. Article 2 on admission, Article 6 on the Authority, Article 8 on defence and security, Article 21 on entry into force.
- Member States · Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. The protocol members and the associate members, and the statement that associates are treated as full members for many activities.
- OECS History: Founding Fathers and Key Milestones · Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. The signature at Basseterre on 18 June 1981, and the two predecessor bodies folded into the secretariats.
- Revised Treaty of Basseterre · Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. The signature of 18 June 2010 and the entry into force on 21 January 2011.
- Free Movement of Persons Regime in the Eastern Caribbean · Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. The indefinite stay stamp, the documents accepted in place of a passport, and the protocol members the regime covers.
- Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) · Caribbean Community. The relationship between the two bodies and the institutions the smaller one runs.
- Eastern Caribbean Central Bank · The agreement of 5 July 1983, the commissioning on 1 October 1983, the eight participating governments, the seat at Basseterre and the rate of EC$2.70 held since July 1976.
- Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court · University of the West Indies. The court of 1967, its seat at Castries, the itinerant Court of Appeal and the jurisdictions it covers.
- Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court · The court's own site. The registry at Castries and the jurisdictions in which its judges sit.