Brussels, 06/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - Following the military Coup d'Etat of last 24 December in Ivory Coast, the European Commission is preparing to propose to the Council to start, under the fourth Lome Convention amended (Article 366b), the procedure possibly leading to the suspension of co-operation and development with the country if no solution is found to re-establish the democratic principles and the rule of law in Ivory Coast.
The initiative will be formalised this Friday by the adoption (through written procedure) of a Commission Communication inviting the Council to begin consultations with the Ivorian authorities and other ACP representatives (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific), so as to re-examine the situation and the way of improving it. These consultations the make up the first part of "procedure 366b" should take place in the next 15 days following the Ivorian authorities invitation and will last 30 days. Beyond this delay, the Council will be able to decide upon the partial suspension, or, as a last resort, the total suspension of the EU's co-operation with the country.
Question upon what the Commission was considering to gain the restitution of the amounts diverted by the Ivory Coast under the reign of President Konan Bédié, the Commission spokesperson recalled that the Ivory Coast had already returned 45% of the EUR 27 million that where the object of irregularities out of the funds granted to a structural adjustment programme of EUR 73 million between 1992 and 1997 and that the balance was being awaited for in February, according to the established calendar.
EUROPE recall that Article 366b (called "suspension clause") can be implemented when a ACP country breaks one of its obligations issued from the central elements of Article 5 of the Convention, for example the respect of Human Rights, democracy and the rule of law. Even before a audit of the Commission departments confirmed, in August 1999, the suspected misappropriation of funds (misappropriation admitted by the Ivorian authorities) the EU had already taken preservation actions and blocked EUR 17 million of the third slice of the structural adjustment programme and frozen 31 billion francs CFA of funds. In such a way as only a part of the EUR 80 million allocated to the Ivory Coast for the 1996-2000 period was cashed.