Aisha Umar
12 November 2009
Abuja — The European Union yesterday applauded ECOWAS progress in the formation of a Stand-by force envisaged for 2010 as a precuser to the proposed Africa Standby force.
In a press briefing after the 16th ministerial meeting between EU and ECOWAS held in Abuja yesterday, the European body called for scaling up of efforts to bring the development of the police and civilian components in tandem with the military component, thus ensuring an integrated approach and allowing an effective and flexible response to crisis.
The Co-Chairman of the meeting and the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Mr. Frank Belfrage EU encouraged ECOWAS to finalise the development of the Rapid Deployment Capability.
He also said the Economic Partnership Agreement between EU and ECOWAS is ongoing, and when concluded would afford access to EU markets for ECOWAS member states.
In a communiqué issued after the meeting, both sides reiterated that climate change is one of the most demanding challenges requiring an urgent and extraordinary global response.
They agreed that developed countries should take the lead by committing themselves to deep emission reduction in the medium and long term, and to the provision of capacity building, financing, and technology to put developing countries on low-carbon development path and to help them adapt to unavoidable harm consequences of climate change.
The minister of state for Foreign Affairs Bagudu Hirse said the government has set December this year as deadline to end gas faring.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Daily Trust. 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.
