Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda 149 movement given the greater sense of labour union unity realised in the last two years. Beyond these, Ghana TUC participates actively in the International Labour Organisation(ILO). In the post-Lome IV era, organised labour has been even more active in collaborating with others within the framework of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement(CPA) which agreement explicitly provides for non-state actors' participation. Though the CPA contains provisions for participation in relation to development cooperation, among others, it is the negotiation of a new trade regime between the EU and the regional groupings of the ACP which has been the issue of intense contestation, participation and collaboration of non-state actors. As indicated above, these collaborations have sought to build social forces in the campaign against the EPA, and consistently made a strong case against the EPA on the grounds that it would undermine the regional integration efforts and processes in West Africa, and undermine Ghana' integration agenda. The support of the Frederich Ebert Stiftung (FES), in the development of these social forces, has been significant. West African Trade Union Working Group on Trade and Development Motivated by the challenges emerging from multilateral and bilateral trading demands, twelve trade union representatives from six West African countries, formed the West African Trade Union Working Group on Trade and Development in May 2005 – with the support of the FES. The motivations for this group arise from the shared view that“West African trades unions have the obligation to … work towards a better inclusion of trade unions in the elaboration, negotiation and implementation of any trade agreement, mainly EPAs; work towards the achievement of food security at the regional level engage on the impact of the agreements on the economy and employment in particular; work towards an effective regional integration; work towards the elaboration of a policy of promotion and protection of employment at national and regional levels; and work towards unity workers associations.” 162 Coming into being in May 2005, the Working Group was preceded by trade interventions, media engagements, lobby visits to Brussels and Berlin which enabled trade unions to draw attention to the negative implications of the EPA development in general, including regional integration. Also through the Lisbon process – the Africa-EU strategy – trade union functionaries from Ghana have actively engaged with various policy institutions within and outside the state to articulate the concerns of organised labour in the negotiation of free trade agreements with ECOWAS. These concerns have included the desire for the ECOWAS region to set its 162 West African Trade Union Working Group on Trade and Development, A Compilation of Work Done: 2005-2008, (Cotonou, FES, 2009).