Do not put pressure on African countries, the EU has been told
Posted by African Press International on December 9, 2007
Lisbon (Portugal) The African Union (AU) chairperson, Alpha Oumar Konare, Saturday urged the European Union to end “piling up the pressure” on African countries during the negotiations for the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) and instead advocated for “fair” agreements.
“It is important, especially in the current negotiations for the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), to avoid using diagrams of another era contrary to the legitimate African choices, to start isolated negotiations which bring into conflict African regions or countries within the same region,” Konare said at the first session of the 2nd Africa-EU Summit held in Lisbon.
“It is also important to listen to African civil society, African private sector, the African Diaspora, which are part of Africa. If not, at the end of this pressure, it will be a victory certainly, but “a pyrrhic victory” based on divisions, with the tragic costs on the African rural population and the African industrialists,” he added.
While the European Union insists on a “dialogue between equals” with the African countries, the president of the African Commission averred that the success of the negotiations between the two continents “depends on confidence and solidarity and asks for the necessary time to conclude fair and reassuring agreements “.
He asserted that the Lisbon Summit was possible thanks to “the compromise and spirit of determination” of the leaders of both continents.
This spirit and determination, he stressed, are “founded on recognised principles: mutual respect, acceptance of our differences, shared democratic standards based on pluralism and the respect of opposition and minorities, and also shared great values of tolerance, peace, good governance, respect of the state of law, non-indifference to disasters, however a non-indifference to be assumed with humility and solidarity.”
On the EUs call for a dialogue “between equals” Konare said: “It is time for Africa to bury definitively the colonial pact, to leave behind the reasoning of the trade and trading post economy: to no longer simply export more raw natural resources, to no longer agree to be simply a selling market of finished imported products.
“Believe me that Africa could be neither a private hunting ground, nor a new territory to be conquered. Such a plural and strategic partnership can do without intermediary and tutor because it will be direct and voluntary,” he insisted.
After the inaugural speeches, the works of the summit continued behind closed doors with five panels: peace and security, democracy and human rights, trade and development, climate change/energy, and migrations and employment.
Seventy African and European heads of state and governments are attending the summit which ends on Sunday.
Published by Korir, API/APN africanpress@getmail.no source.apa
