Brussels, 11/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of an official visit to Burkina Faso, in the context of the celebration of the seventh anniversary of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (EMOA), Nicole Fontaine, President of the European Parliament, gave an assessment, through a certain number of speeches, on the links that unite the European Union with Africa, on the designs for integration that emerge as well as the respect for human rights and democratic principals.
In the speeches she made before the National Assembly and during the celebration of the seventh anniversary of the EMAO, Mrs Fontaine underlined that the future enlargement of the EU could not be accomplished to the detriment of its cooperation with Africa. She asserted that the enhancement of links with the Mediterranean and African world formed "a necessary element to the balance of this new enlarged Europe that is being drawn".
Furthermore she brought the support of the European Parliament to the major integration design that is at the heart of the EMAO, feeling that in Africa, "the path to prosperity (…) passes by the formation of structured groupings that accept the voluntary sharing of a part of their traditional sovereignty", groupings that are also the vectors of peace and democracy. Mr Fontaine also stated her concern for the situation in the Ivory Coast as well as for the persistent beds of civil war in Sierra Leon and Liberia.