While Caribbean countries this past weekend marked the 200th anniversary since the British Parliament passed an act to end the transatlantic slave trade, most European leaders gathered in Berlin to mark the 50th birthday of what is now known as as the European Union (EU).

In a way, both events are connected - or, at the very least, hold modern-day relevance to each other - an understanding of which, we believe, is important to Jamaica and its partners in the Caribbean Community (Caricom), particularly in the face of recent events in this region.

The end of the slave trade was perhaps not the most defining development, but it was an important precursor to the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies and, ultimately, in the Americas. Indeed, abolition set the trajectory for the anti-colonial and independence movements in our countries as well as the often meandering process of regional integration.

In many respects, the Europeans have found liberation, or more to the point, comity via their integration project. The vision of Jean Monnet, and what started as the European Coal and Steel Community, appear to have placed a permanent lid on a history of European competition that spawned two world wars and helped to fuel an economic system that for over 300 years defined black people as chattel. And critically for those Europeans who invest in the project, it has helped to make poor countries prosperous - Spain, Portugal and, more recently, Ireland.

All of this is not to suggest that the EU is without its problems. It still struggles to define what it is to be European; many Europeans have negative views about the union and are cynical of the bureaucrats in Brussels. But there is an understanding that in today's environment of globalisation and with increasing power regional blocs, relatively weak states, standing on their own, will find it difficult to survive.

This essential logic of conglomeration, which the Europeans have understood and embraced these past five decades, ought not to be lost on the 15 mini-states that form Caricom, most of whose members are now moving towards the creation of a single market and economy.

The EU, with a population of nearly half a billion people and an economy nearly as large, if not as robust as America's, grasped the sense, for example, of creating a seamless economic space, with harmonised rules, over which its companies can range and sharpen their competitive edge. The Europeans understand, too, that the free movement of capital and the movement of labour with few restrictions are also important to building competitive mass and muscle.

But these things just don't happen in a vacuum. They are underpinned by practical institutional support, such as a common approach to energy and a policy on climate protection - two issues which should be of vital importance to the countries of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, which are, for the most part, energy deficient and as island nations face the dangers posed by global warming. Indeed, energy imbalance, in the context of a single market, ought not be to the economic detriment of a deficit member, or to the sole advantage of those with surplus resources.

There are clear lessons for us from Europe, should we choose to grasp them, not least of which that partnership in this context implies some diminution of sovereignty.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.