Top EU officials to mend bridges with African Union

By David Cronin

Date: 07/04/05

Senior politicians from the EU and African Union will seek to upgrade their relations next week after several years of disagreement over Zimbabwe.

A meeting between ministers from the two sides in Luxembourg on Monday (11 April) is to discuss whether a second EU-Africa summit can be held. The only such gathering was held in 2000, with a subsequent one scheduled for 2003 postponed indefinitely after many EU states threatened to boycott it if President Robert Mugabe turned up.

The UK has promised that Africa and climate change will be its top priorities when it takes over the EU presidency in July. Diplomats representing Tony Blair's government say they wish to see an EU-Africa summit organised in the near future, provided it will not be dominated by the Zimbabwe question. The question is likely to be examined in the light of last Thursday's (31 March) parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe.

In a statement issued this week, the Luxembourg presidency said the EU was unable to recognise those elections as free and fair. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party won a comfortable victory in the poll, which, according to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was marred by massive vote-rigging and the intimidation of its supporters. Mugabe has been accused of using food aid as a political weapon by denying it to perceived opponents.

While some Brussels-based officials have voiced frustration that relations with the 53-country African Union appear to be "held hostage" to the Zimbabwe question, Grace Kwinjeh, the MDC's EU representative, said that was only correct. She called for EU leaders to exert a greater influence over Mugabe's most powerful defender, South African President Thabo Mbeki.

"The EU needs to take a tougher stance with the African Union and SADC [the Southern Africa Development Community]" over Zimbabwe, she added.

But Gift Punungwe, Zimbabwe's ambassador to the EU, insisted the elections had been conducted properly, with zero violence. The reason why foreign journalists had been banned from the country, he claimed, was because "some media houses have clearly taken a very partisan view". There was no question, he said, of an EU-Africa summit taking place without top-level Zimbabwean involvement.

Next week's meeting is also likely to discuss the conflict in Sudan, the political turmoil in Togo and Ivory Coast, trade ties between Europe and Africa and preparations for the annual UN general assembly this autumn, where the fight against poverty is to be the dominant topic.

Preview of a meeting between Ministers from the European Union and the African Union, Luxembourg, 11 April 2005. Ministers were to discuss whether a second EU-Africa summit could be held. The only such gathering was in 2000, with a subsequent one scheduled for 2003 postponed indefinitely after many EU states threatened to boycott it if Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe turned up.