16th EU-ECOWAS Ministerial Troika Meeting Final communiqué

 

 

ABUJA, Nigeria, November 12, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — 16th EU-ECOWAS Ministerial Troika Meeting Final communiqué

1. The Sixteenth Ministerial Troika meeting between the European Union (EU) and the

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was held in Abuja on 11 November

2009 under the Co–Chairmanship of Mr. Frank Belfrage, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs at

the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden and Ambassador Bagudu M. Hirse, Minister of State

at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria.

2. The EU Troika further included Mr. Stefano Manservisi, Director-General for relations with

African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and Development, European Commission, Mr. José

Costa Pereira, Head of Unit, Africa Task Force, General Secretariat of the Council of the

European Union and Ms Carmen de la Pena, Director-General for Africa, Ministry of Foreign

Affairs and Cooperation of Spain. The ECOWAS Troika further included Madame Minata

Samate-Cessouma, Deputy Minister of Regional Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

and Regional Cooperation of Burkina Faso, and Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, President of the

ECOWAS Commission. Mr. Nicolas Guinard representing the Special Representative of the

UNSG, United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) and Ambassador Amadou Diop,

Diplomatic Adviser to the President of the UEMOA Commission, also attended the meeting as

observers.

3. In their opening statements, the Co-Chairmen underscored the constructive political dialogue

and the close and fruitful cooperation between the EU and ECOWAS (hereinafter the Parties).

They underlined the decisive positive role played by the jointly agreed EU-Africa Strategy in

achieving closer EU-Africa relations, and in particular the crucial importance of its strategic

partnerships on Peace and Security, Governance, Environment and Climate Change, Energy,

and other political, trade and development-related issues of mutual interest. Continued and

intensified EU-Africa partnership in this framework will be instrumental for the success of the

upcoming 3rd EU-Africa Summit.

PEACE AND SECURITY

Situations of peace and security in ECOWAS Member-States

4. The Parties expressed mutual concern about the attempts at constitutional manipulation and

the reversals of democracy in some ECOWAS Member States. In this regard, the EU expressed

its appreciation of the measures being taken by ECOWAS to defend the gains of the

democratization process and uphold the rule of law in West Africa.

2

Niger

5. The Parties expressed deep concern regarding the political developments in Niger. The EU

welcomed the position of the 17 October 2009 Extraordinary Summit of ECOWAS that the

series of unconstitutional steps taken by the authorities in Niger to extend the non-renewable

mandate of President Tandja, including the abolition of the Constitutional Court and the

Referendum of 4 August 2009, were against the letter and spirit of the 1999 Niger Constitution

and the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. Both Parties

agreed that the actions of the authorities are in grave violation of democratic principles and the

rule of law. The Parties further described the circumstances under which the legislative elections

of 20 October 2009 took place as not conducive for the elections to be deemed credible, free,

fair and inclusive. The EU therefore expressed its support for the decision of ECOWAS of 20

October, and encouraged ECOWAS to further exercise its leverage over the country.

6. The Parties emphasized the importance of re-establishing a constructive and inclusive

dialogue among all the relevant Nigerien stakeholders to resolve the current political crisis and

return the country to the rule of law in a consensual manner. Towards this end, both Parties

expressed strong support for the Inter-Nigerien Dialogue that began in Abuja on 9 October 2009

under the facilitation of the ECOWAS Mediator, General (Rtd) Abdulsalami Abubakar, and

urged all the parties to the crisis to demonstrate strong political will and determination in order

to reach a consensual arrangement on the way out of the constitutional impasse.

7. The EU informed ECOWAS of its proceedings in accordance with Article 96 of the

Cotonou Agreement, by which the Nigerien authorities have been invited to hold consultations

in Brussels with the EU on the way out of the political stalemate in the Country. The Parties

agreed to continue to closely coordinate their efforts in support of the dialogue and called on all

the other concerned members of the international community to join efforts to restore consensus

and the rule of law in Niger.

Guinea

8. The EU and ECOWAS expressed grave concern about the worsening climate of violence

and the sharp deterioration of the political, security and human rights situation in Guinea under

the CNDD. In this context, the two Parties strongly condemned the violent repression of the

peaceful political demonstration on 28 September 2009 in Conakry by the security forces under

the command of the CNDD which resulted in the massacre of more than 150 unarmed civilians

and perpetration of sexual violence against women.

9. The EU took satisfactory note of the commencement of consultations on 3 November 2009 in

Ouagadougou between the ECOWAS Facilitator, President Blaise Compaore, and the Forces

Vives. The Parties called upon the Chairman of the CNDD to confirm publicly and in writing,

his previous commitment that neither he nor the other members of the CNDD nor the Prime

Minister will stand in the forthcoming Presidential elections. Both Parties urged Guinean

stakeholders to put in place, without further delay, a new transition authority on a consensual

basis and to continue without delays in the preparations for the electoral process.

10. The EU and ECOWAS welcomed the decision by the Secretary General of the UN to

establish an International Commission of Inquiry into the events of 28 September 2009 in

Conakry and underlined the personal responsibility of the perpetrators for the killings, sexual

violence and human rights violations. Both Parties recalled the ECOWAS and EU decisions of

17 and 27 October respectively to impose an arms embargo on Guinea and to adopt measures

targeting the members of CNDD and individuals associated with them, responsible for the gross

violation of human rights and/or the political stalemate in the country. The EU further recalled

3

that consultations under article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement have been closed since July 2009

and that only initiatives relating to the humanitarian aid and support for democratization remain

open. The gradual resumption of EU-cooperation with Guinea will depend on concrete progress

in peaceful democratic transition and the reestablishment of the rule of law in the country.

11. The Parties commended the role of the International Contact Group on Guinea (ICG-G) and

urged the Group to continue its good work aimed at facilitating the restoration of constitutional

order and the rule of law. They called upon the Guinean authorities to fully cooperate with the

ICG-G.

Guinea-Bissau

12. The EU and ECOWAS lauded the peaceful and orderly conduct of the June and July

presidential elections in Guinea Bissau. The Parties reaffirmed their commitment to assist

Guinea-Bissau to foster peace and stability by restoring essential services to the population,

strengthening governance institutions, and embarking on the alleviation of poverty and the fight

against organised crime and impunity. The EU announced its intention to rally the international

community for an international donor conference to be held in Europe in the first semester 2010

aimed at mobilising the necessary financial resources for the economic development and

stabilisation of the country, simultaneously linked to improvements in the social, economic and

political areas as well as to the security sector reform.

13. Both Parties stressed the utmost urgency of a swift and comprehensive reform of the

country’s security sector. In this context, ECOWAS informed the meeting of the visit of a joint

AU/ECOWAS information Mission to the country to assess the modalities for assisting the new

government in the implementation of the reform of the Defence and Security Sector, post

conflict reconstruction and development and the fight against drug trafficking. ECOWAS

further announced that a preparatory conference on security sector reform in Guinea Bissau will

be held in Abuja before the end of the year. ECOWAS commended the ESDP mission in

Guinea Bissau (EUSSR) for the work accomplished in the security sector in Guinea Bissau and

expressed its support for the extension of the mission beyond November 2009.

14. The Parties expressed deep concern about the effects of drug trafficking on the security

situation and political stability in the country. They agreed on the need to explore and safeguard

synergies between all national and international partners to support the immediate

implementation of the ECOWAS Regional Action Plan. The EU reaffirmed its political and

financial support to the Regional Action Plan.

Côte d’Ivoire

15. ECOWAS and the EU deplored the slow pace of the electoral process in Cote d’Ivoire. They

expressed their preoccupation with the latest twist in the citizen identification and voter

registration exercises, whereby the voting rights of a significant number of potential voters are

being questioned, adding to the repeated postponement of the publication of the provisional

voter’s register and thus rendering the holding of the elections on 29 November 2009 practically

impossible. They stressed the need to prioritize the holding of credible elections immediately as

a necessary precondition for a successful transition and political stability in the country, and

called on the authorities to confirm an early date for the elections.

16. Both sides welcomed the progress towards the reunification of the country and the

nationwide restoration of civil administration, tasks yet to be completed and consolidated. They

expressed concern about the limited progress in the integration of the Forces Nouvelles

combatants into the national security forces, the dismantling of the numerous militias and the

4

establishment of the Integrated Command Centre, solely responsible for ensuring security

during the upcoming elections.

17. Both Parties commended the efforts of President Blaise Compaoré as Facilitator in the Inter-

Ivorian Dialogue and encouraged him to continue his good offices by encouraging the

stakeholders in the peace process to fully and swiftly implement all outstanding elements of the

Ouagadougou Peace Agreement, including the holding of the elections.

Security and development in the Sahel region

18. The Parties expressed concern over the prevailing security situation in the Sahel region,

fuelled notably by organised crime, trafficking and the activities of terrorist cells. They also

noted the decisive exacerbating impacts of weak governance, poverty and exposure to climate

change on instability and weak development in the region. They called on all States in the

region to step up their engagement and cooperation, including the holding of the anticipated

High-Level Conference on Security and Development to strengthen intra-regional dialogue and

adopt a strategy to meet these challenges.

19. The EU informed ECOWAS of its missions to Mali and Mauritania and its on-going efforts,

in close coordination with the governments of the region, to address the underlying causes of

instability. The EU welcomed the support that ECOWAS reiterated in this regard and

emphasized the importance of the Organisation remaining engaged.

The regional peace and security architecture

ECOWAS Standby Force

20. Both Parties noted the steady progress being made by ECOWAS in the operationalisation of

the ECOWAS Stand-by Force, whose full validation had originally been envisaged for 2010 in

the roadmap of the Africa Standby Force. This will include the scaling up of efforts to bring the

development of the all-important police and civilian components up to speed with the military

component thus ensuring an integrated approach and allowing an effective and flexible rightsbased

response to possible crisis. The EU welcomed the active participation of ECOWAS in the

continental exercise Amani Africa. The EU also encouraged ECOWAS to finalise the

development of the Rapid Deployment Capability.

21. The Parties welcomed the logistics exercise that was carried out in June 09 and which

constituted a further step towards full operational capability of the ECOWAS Stand-by Force.

They noted that detailed planning, elaboration of clear objectives and associated priorities in

line with agreed policies is of utmost importance to make further progress and allow for

focused, harmonised support by partners.

22. The study aiming to support training centres on the African Continent entered a crucial

phase. A field study was conducted in close cooperation with ECOWAS staff. Both Parties

welcomed this joint effort and agreed that additional refinement whereby ECOWAS sets

priorities is needed in order to allow support to match the training needs of ECOWAS Stand-by

Forces.

Conflict Prevention

5

23. The EU welcomed the efforts currently underway by ECOWAS to develop the Plans of

Action to facilitate the operationalisation of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework and

reiterated that operational and structural conflict prevention in the region is an EU top priority.

Electoral processes

24. The Parties, while expressing satisfaction with the noticeable improvements in the capacity

to organize and monitor elections in the region, also recognised that the region had experienced

serious challenges and set-backs brought about by the manipulation of Constitutions and nonconsensual

modifications to the electoral legal frameworks. They stressed the utmost

importance of enforcing the respect and implementation of minimum standards such as

established by ECOWAS and the AU. In this regard, both Parties stressed that the ECOWAS

Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance continues to provide a legally

binding and essential reference for Member States. In the cases of the post-conflict countries,

particularly Cote d’Ivoire and Togo, the Parties stressed the necessity to continue building the

required capacities for organizing polls and conducting electoral campaigns in accordance with

established international standards.

25. The Parties underscored the urgent need to pay greater attention to the implementation and

recommendations of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), and also recommendations

from the ECOWAS and EU Election Observation Missions. The Parties undertook to improve

the follow-up to these processes, including by establishing the necessary incentives and

constraints to transform the expectations of key stakeholders in the countries concerned.

26. The Parties recalled that the political challenge of managing a post-electoral process remains

crucial. They stressed the need to continue to emphasize the importance of preventing and

addressing election related disputes and conflicts. The EU underlined the importance of

ECOWAS-led mediation efforts in this context, and pledged continued full EU support for such

efforts.

Women as agents in transition towards peace and development

27. ECOWAS and the EU underlined the critical importance of women’s and girls’ human

rights and a full involvement of women in the promotion of peace, security and development in

accordance with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action as well as the UN Security

Council Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889 on Women, Peace and Security. The Parties

underscored their resolve to step up efforts to empower women and to protect women and girls

from gender-based and sexual violence during and after armed conflict, and to combat impunity

for these crimes, considering them to constitute crimes against humanity if committed

systematically.

28. The Parties affirmed the need to enable women to get more actively involved in mediation

and peace negotiation efforts on an equal basis, and to assure a greater role for women in

decision-making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution as well as sustainable

reconstruction. As part of these efforts, the Parties emphasised the urgency to address attitudinal

issues concerning women and girls as agents for peace and as political actors. Both sides also

agreed on the necessity to facilitate women’s participation in economic life, notably by

guaranteeing equitable access to education, justice and resources, including through specific

instruments such as micro-credit.

6

JOINT CHALLENGES

Climate change, environment and energy security

29. The Parties reiterated that climate change is one of the most demanding challenges of our

time requiring an urgent and extraordinary global response and that the increase in global

temperature should not exceed 2 degrees C. To this end the Parties expressed their

determination to step up the pace of negotiations in order to reach a positive and ambitious

outcome, including a shared vision, mitigation, adaptation, technology development and

transfer, and financial resources at the 15th conference of the parties to UNFCCC in Copenhagen

in December this year.

30. The Parties stressed that developed countries should continue to take the lead by committing

to deep emission reduction cuts in the medium and longer term and to the provision of capacity

building, financing and technology to put developing countries on a low-carbon development

path and to help them adapt to unavoidable harmful consequences of climate change. They

recognized the important implications that climate change will have for global security and

welcomed the initiative by the EU of a dialogue with major parties in order to look at possible

areas of cooperation.

31. ECOWAS and the EU called on developing countries to prepare as soon as possible lowcarbon

development growth plans in order to indicate the actions to be taken and the level of

support they require. The EU welcomed the advanced stage of preparations by ECOWAS to

adopt a Regional Action Programme to reduce Vulnerability to Climate Change in West Africa,

including setting up a Climate Change Secretariat at the ECOWAS Commission to facilitate the

mainstreaming of climate change into priority national, regional and multi-country investments,

programs and projects.

32. The Parties reconfirmed their commitment to intensify their cooperation within the

framework of the priorities agreed for the Africa-EU Energy Partnership. They reconfirmed

that, with the right policies in place, there should be no contradiction between responding to the

climate change challenge and enhancing energy security and identified the future development

of the energy sector in the ECOWAS region as a key area for the deepening of bilateral

cooperation.

33. The EU welcomed the efforts of ECOWAS to establish a common energy and electricity

market. Both Parties noted that the recently launched International Partnership on Energy

Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) could

play an important role in further enhancing cooperation on energy efficiency and renewable

energy.

34. Finally, the Parties recognised that West Africa and Europe have shared interests to increase

the use of renewable energy resources. Regarding the oil and gas sectors, they stressed the

critical importance of developing and strengthening joint strategies to enhance corporate social

responsibility and responsible natural resource governance as a tool to mitigate resource-based

conflicts in the region and making the development of the oil and gas sectors beneficial to the

whole society. In addition, they emphasized the need to support a more diversified growth as

well as a wider access of the population to energy services.

Regional integration, EPA and the development dimension (EPADP)

35. The Parties emphasised the importance of regional economic integration for consolidation

of peace and security, the eradication of poverty, and the development of all economic sectors in

7

West Africa. In this context, the Parties welcomed the progress being made in the Economic

Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations and reiterated the commitment of both sides to

demonstrate the necessary flexibility, including the consideration of special and differential

treatment issues, in order to resolve the outstanding areas of divergence and swiftly conclude

the negotiations for the establishment of a comprehensive regional EPA covering trade in goods,

EPA-related cooperation and other trade-related issues. Both Parties underscored the importance

of revitalising trade flows between West Africa and Europe, especially against the backdrop of

the global economic and financial crisis, and stressed the positive role an EPA could play in this

process.

36. The Parties welcomed the progress made by West Africa in the definition of the EPA

Development Program (EPADP). The EU and ECOWAS underlined the instrumental role of the

EPADP in enabling the West African region to take full advantage of the opportunities offered

by the EPA whilst minimising the adjustment costs resulting from the implementation of the

Agreement. In that context, they also welcomed the references to the EPADP in the joint

EC/ECOWAS/UEMOA statement issued in Abuja on 16 October 2009, underlining in

particular the EPADP as a coherent framework for the implementation of priority actions of EU

assistance (European Commission and Member States) to support the EPA Development

dimension.

Regional efforts to combat organised crime

37. The EU and ECOWAS shared their enduring preoccupation with human trafficking, drug

trafficking and other forms of organized crime as transnational phenomena that gravely impact

on countries of origin, transit and destination and which call for concerted international efforts

to combat the pull and push factors underpinning the trade. ECOWAS and the EU agreed to

continue their cooperation in this field, based on the principle of shared responsibility and a

balanced approach. Furthermore, the Parties encouraged the continuation of the dialogue

between the EU and ECOWAS at experts’ level on issues of common concern including in the

fight against proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

38. ECOWAS informed about the serious damage drug trafficking and organized crime have

inflicted on the region’s political and socio-economic stability, and the efforts underway to

counter the scourge. The EU side stressed its continued commitment to preventing and

combating the threat, and underlined the importance of ECOWAS as a key partner for the EU in

these efforts.

39. Both the EU and ECOWAS recognised the importance of robust regional leadership in

tackling the issue. They welcomed the endorsement at the highest political level of the

Operational Plan which outlines the practical measures and activities for the implementation of

the Praia Plan of Action and urged ECOWAS Member States to intensify their engagement and

move forward the Regional Plan. The EU reconfirmed its engagement in the region and noted

that substantial resources for preventing and combating human trafficking, drug trafficking and

other forms of organised crime are provided by the European Commission programmes and

Member States’ bilateral and multilateral assistance projects.

AOB

40. The EU and ECOWAS agreed that the next ministerial Troika meeting will take place in

Europe at a date to be determined by the Parties.

Abuja, 11 November 2009

 

SOURCE 

Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)