9-10 July Windhoek dialogue

Date: 17/07/1997

CHRISTIAN Democrat MEPs met with representatives from 17 like-minded parties from 15 African nations for the third 'Windhoek dialogue'. Ever since a major European Parliament encounter with its African counterparts in Namibia last year, Belgian MP Johan van Hecke has been gathering African leaders who broadly subscribe to the European People's Party (EPP) ideals of personal responsibility, Christian Democracy and socially-sensitive market economics. “Over past months this significant step looks set to become a political reality which will embrace participants from all African regions,” said the EPP in a statement after the meeting.

DELEGATES agreed to create a 'Union of African Parties for Democracy and Development' (UAPDD), signing up to core values such as the rule of law, multi-party democracy, and 'a society of solidarity and responsibility'. The UAPDD will also seek other parties with similar ideals in the African continent, calling on them “to join us in the struggle for a future Africa where more democracy and more prosperity go hand in hand.”

TO SUPPORT this work, the EPP has pledged to fund an 'International Institute for Democracy and Development'. The institute will help to train politicians and other decision-makers who have joined the UAPDD. Van Hecke and Ugandan development expert Henry Ssewannyana will look into costs, and recommend where the institute should be set up. EPP Group President Wilfried Martens stressed that this initiative had come from the African, rather than the European partners.

AFTER a talk by Monseigneur Laurent Monsengwo, who is closely involved in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's provisional government, MEPs expressed concern at the plight of refugees throughout the central African region. “We are not so convinced that the Congo's new government is dealing with the problem,” said a spokeswoman.

PARTICIPANTS debated the future of the Lomé Convention ahead of a report which Martens hopes to prepare for September and the European Commission's own White Paper on the future of EU relations with Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.