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Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - Web posted at 8:46:59 GMT EU urged to be more conscious of Africa STAFF REPORTERNAMIBIA'S Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), have called on the European Union to refrain from "using underhand tactics to coerce African countries to sign economic partnership agreements (EPAs) that might not benefit them. |
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In a statement on Africa Day, the CSOs demanded that the EU should honour the partnership on trade and regional integration of the Joint EU-Africa Strategy with regard to the African regional integration process to ensure that the EU's EPA negotiations support this process. "We further urge the European Union to acknowledge the African Union's established and recognised regional economic communities and to honour the provisions of the 'European Consensus on Development' adopted in 2006 to ensure a policy coherence for development towards Africa in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. "The EU should allow for the revision of contentious issues experienced during the 2007 interim EPA negotiations before commencement of any negotiations towards full EPAs; and refrain from including the new issues in the EPA negotiations, which are not a requirement for compatibility with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. The EU should further allow maximum flexibility in the EPA negotiations to ensure that African governments retain their policy space with sufficient time allowed to consult with all affected stakeholders," the CSO body, led by Nelago Kasuto, stated. African countries commemorated Africa Day on Sunday. This annual event is a commemoration of the founding of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) in 1963. The African Union (AU) succeeded the OAU in 2002 in an event that earmarked an institutional revolution on the African continent. The vision of the AU is a united Africa with greater solidarity and unity between the different countries and all segments of society. One of the objectives to achieve this vision is to promote common positions on issues of interest to African countries and their people. The AU specifically chose themes that coincide with the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa for this year's commemoration of Africa Day. Included in these MDGs are the eradication of poverty (Goal 1) and a global partnership for development (Goal 8). During the EU-Africa Summit of December 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal, a Joint EU-Africa Strategy was adopted. Included in this Strategy is a partnership on the MDGs, which is closely linked to the Partnership on Trade and Regional Integration. One of the priorities of the latter is to support the African integration process with an objective of political and socio-economic integration of Africa in line with the Abuja Treaty of 1991 - which led to the establishment of the AU. One of the expected outcomes of this is to create synergies between the African integration process and the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). One of the activities to be undertaken is to specifically ensure that EPAs support the African regional integration initiatives. The recent history of the European Commission's (EC's) EPA negotiations with African countries till the end of 2007, attested to a total different approach as stipulated in the Joint EU-Africa Strategy. The EC's approach bears witness to a disregard for the AU's regional integration process and its declarations on EPAs. The statement was signed by the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), Komeho Namibia Development Agency (Komeho Namibia), the International Community of Women Living with HIV-AIDS (ICW), Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), Children with Language, Speech and Hearing Problems (Clash), Labour Resource & Research Institute (LaRRI), Ndatinda College, Namibia Rural Development Programme (NRDP) and Women Solidarity Namibia (WSN). |
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