Portugal delays Mugabe decision day

The Portuguese presidency has yet to send out invitations for the EU-Africa summit, preferring to put off the controversial issue of inviting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

An EU diplomat said that the presidency was currently "focusing on the substance of the summit", which will include an EU-Africa strategy on the future relationship between the two blocs. Consultations were held last week with representatives from the African Union on concluding the strategy, the diplomat said.

"For us, this is the priority," said the diplomat, adding that there were still three months to go before the summit takes place on 8-9 December.

"The question of invitations will be addressed but no invitations have yet been issued," the diplomat added.

The UK has warned that Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not attend the summit if Mugabe turns up, with summit organisers fearing that other EU leaders would follow suit. This would lead to a diplomatic debacle similar to 2002 when a scheduled EU-Africa summit had to be cancelled.

But some diplomats believe that an EU-Africa summit is too central to the Portuguese presidency to be abandoned. "We can’t have a relationship blocked because of one man," said an EU diplomat.

Meanwhile, Don McKinnon, the secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations, comprising the UK and its former colonies including a number of African states, said that Europeans must be wary about preaching to African leaders about Mugabe.

"They find it very hard to defend [the statement] that, ‘we’re inviting you to our summit but we’re telling you who comes’. And your option then is to bow down and say ‘yes sir, I’ll come and I’ll do as I’m told’," said McKinnon.

He added that the issue was particularly sensitive for Zimbabwe’s neighbouring countries. "It’s the very same reason that southern Africans in particular get very incensed at being told ‘you must deal with Mugabe’. How does a leader feel when he is shown in his own media to be just bowing and scraping to western leaders?"

The summit is also expected to be dominated by talks on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific states which are to be signed by the end of the year. Development ministers holding an informal meeting this week (21-22 September) will discuss the state of play on the EPAs.

The Portuguese presidency has yet to send out invitations for the EU-Africa summit, preferring to put off the controversial issue of inviting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.