Brussels, Sep 25, 2017 (SPS) -The European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) agreed upon "renaming" their summit between Europeans and Africans scheduled for 29-30 November in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), the EU-AU summit, Algeria's ambassador Amar Belani said Sunday in Brussels.
"The AU and the EU agreed upon renaming their next meeting +EU-AU Summit+," which is expected to take place on 29-30 November 2017 in Abidjan, named in the previous editions EU-Africa Summit," Belani told APS.
This agreement between the Pan-African and European institutions "thwarts the manoeuvres and pressure exerted directly by Morocco on the EU or through European countries that support it, with a view to excluding the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), founding country of the African Union, with which Morocco had agreed to sit by acceding to the Pan-African institution and by ratifying its constitution, without conditions or reservations."
The European Parliament welcomed the "renaming" of the next Abidjan Summit through the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), which has recently adopted an opinion about "the draft report on the EU-Africa strategy: Accelerating development," an opinion, in which it "considers the fact that AU encompasses the entire African continent as a very positive step towards pan-African integration and welcomes the initiative to rename the EU-Africa Summit, EU-AU Summit."
"Given this convergence of views between the two regional organizations, Morocco is warned of any attempt to foil the forthcoming EU-AU Summit because it will bear full responsibility, as was the case in the humiliating attempt thwarted in Maputo on the occasion of the ministerial meeting on the development of Africa (TICAD-VI), held from 23 to 25 August," warned Amar Belani. (SPS)
062/SPS/APS