AU statement on Accra Union Gov. Debate Mtg

[RWalker]

ACCRA DECLARATION


We, the Heads of State and Government of The Assembly of the African Union, meeting at its our 9th Ordinary Session in Accra, Ghana, from 1 to 3 July 2007,

RECALLING our decision Assembly/AU/Dec. 156 (VIII) adopted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2007 on the need for a “Grand Debate on the Union Government� with a view to providing a clear vision of the future of the African Union and of African unity;

CONVINCED that the ultimate objective of the African Union is the United States of Africa with a Union Government as envisaged by the founding fathers of the Organization of African Unity and, in particular, the visionary leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana;

ALSO CONVINCED of the need for common responses to the major challenges of globalization facing Africa and boosting regional integration processes through an effective continental mechanism;

RECOGNIZING that opening up narrow domestic markets to greater trade and investment through freer movement of persons, goods, services and capital would accelerate growth thus, reducing excessive weaknesses of many of our Member States;

FURTHER RECOGNIZING that the Union Government should be built on common values that need to be identified and agreed upon as benchmarks;

ACKNOWLEDGING the importance of involving the African peoples in order to ensure that the African Union is a Union of peoples and not just a “Union of states and governments�, as well as the African Diaspora in the processes of economic and political integration of our continent;

HEREBY DECLARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. We agree to accelerate the economic and political integration of the African continent, including the formation of a Union Government for Africa with the ultimate objective of creating the United States of Africa.

2. We agree on the following steps to attaining the Union Government:

a) to rationalize and strengthen the Regional Economic Communities, and harmonize their activities, in conformity with our earlier decision, so as to lead to the creation of an African Common Market, through the stages set in the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja Treaty), with a reviewed and shorter timeframe to be agreed upon in order to accelerate the economic and, where possible, political integration;

b) to conduct immediately, an Audit of the Executive Council in terms of Article 10 of the Constitutive Act, the Commission as well as the other organs of the African Union in accordance with the Terms of Reference adopted by the 10th Extraordinary Session of our Executive Council held in Zimbali, South Africa on 10 May 2007;

c) to establish a ministerial Committee to examine the following:

i.) identification of the contents of the Union Government concept and its relations with national governments;
ii.) identification of domains of competence and the impact of the establishment of the Union Government on the sovereignty of member states;
iii.) definition of the relationship between the Union Government and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs),
iv.) elaboration of the road map together with timeframes for establishing the Union Government; and
v.) identification of additional sources of financing the activities of the Union.

3. The outcome of the audit and the work of the Ministerial Committee will be submitted to the Executive Council, to make appropriate recommendations to the next ordinary session of our Assembly.

4. We agree on the importance of involving the African peoples, including Africans in the Diaspora in the processes leading to the formation of the Union Government.


Done in Accra, this 3rd day of July 2007