Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Caesar Zvayi
4 July 2009
Tripoli — THE 13th Ordinary Session of the African Union General Assembly was set to end yesterday evening after the leaders adopted a document that seeks to transform the AU Commission into a more powerful authority with powers to guide defence and foreign policies of member-states.
The leaders were locked up in a meeting into the early hours of yesterday morning discussing the report that was prepared by the Executive Council that met here in April to discuss the transformation of the commission into the proposed AU authority.
After intense debate that only ended around 4am, the leaders adopted the document that now awaits ratification by member-states after the requisite amendments are made to the AU's constitutive acts.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi described the outcome as a success saying the proposed authority would be a significant step towards the envisioned Union government.
"The AU Authority is a step towards the full integration of the continent, of course, its a process which will require the Regional Economic Communities in the various areas to speed up the process of both economic and political integration because it is the Regional Economic Communities which will constitute the building blocks of political and economic integration.
"The main element, which is a new feature is the authority, the powers that have now been granted to the authority to co-ordinate areas of common policy and areas of common defence, that is in areas that the member-states have agreed in common, in the areas of foreign policy and defence policy. The authority has now been mandated to coordinate those areas," he said.
At the time of writing, the summit was still in session, seized with the peace and security situation on the continent, particularly in the Horn of Africa region where rampant piracy has been identified as a threat to continental peace and stability along with the tension pitting Eritrea against its neighbours, Djibouti and Ethiopia.
AU chairman and host president, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi proposed an extraordinary AU summit to coincide with the 40th anniversary of his ascension to power on the back of the revolution that deposed the then King Idriss on September 1, 1969.
The proposed summit, which was reported to have received the backing of the AU Commission, would be dedicated to finding lasting solutions to the prevailing flashpoints on the continent.
Meanwhile, President Mugabe and his delegation arrived in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, yesterday on the first leg of their journey home from the eastern coastal city of Sirte, the venue of the summit.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
