Brussels, 07/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - Niger authorities have accepted the invitation proffered them at the end of October to come to Brussels for political consultations with the European Union (see EUROPE 10009).
These consultations, prior to the possible suspension of cooperation between the EU and Niger, will take place in the EU Council buildings under the terms of Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement which links the EU to the ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) group of states. The meeting will try to resolve the anti-constitutional situation that prevails in the country following the referendum of 4 August which allowed President Mamadou Tanja to remain in power after the Constitutional Court and the parliament were dissolved (see EUROPE 9954).
A few days previously, the 18th Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly, which brought together 78 MEPs and a similar number of ACP elected representatives in Luanda, Angola (see EUROPE 10030) strongly condemned the situation which Assembly joint chairman Louis Michel (ALDE, Belgium) summarised with the sentence: “The coup d'état which we are condemning means that we cannot recognise constitutional bodies that result from an anti-constitutional process”. Given the conditions in which the latest elections took place in Niger, the Niger delegation was relegated to mere observers at the Luanda meeting and was not, therefore, allowed to participate fully in debates.
Niger delegation cold-shouldered by Joint Parliamentary Assembly
The joint statement adopted by the MEPs and their ACP counterparts on Thursday 3 December criticised President Tandja for suspending the institutions that guarantee the rule of law and for violating the constitution of Niger by holding an illegal referendum, the outcome of which allowed him to remain in power for three more years. It also slated the anti-constitutional parliamentary elections of 20 October which were widely boycotted by the opposition.
“This constituted a clear violation of the essential elements of the Cotonou Agreement, to which the Government of Niger is a signatory. We therefore call on Niger to respect its commitments under the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement,” the statement says.
The parliamentarians were solidly behind the international condemnation of Niger, particularly its suspension from ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and the EU's suspension of budget support.
They called on the president and the authorities of Niger to return to constitutional order as soon as possible, and to uphold democracy and the rule of law, and to respect basic human rights. They called also for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Members of Parliament, human rights activists and opposition leaders.
The Joint Parliamentary Assembly also called for an independent international investigation into human rights violations committed during the electoral period. It hoped that the EU's political consultations with Niger would lead to a satisfactory outcome. (A.N./transl.rt)