Brussels, 09/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The official proclamation of the election of Faure Gnasimgbe (son of the late president Eyadema) as the new President of Togo on 24 April, which as sharply contested by the opposition, was welcomed without enthusiasm by the European Commission. After having expressed its concerns about the violence surrounding these elections (EUROPE 8938), the Commission simply took note of the results and called for national reconciliation. The Commission also used this occasion to call for full cooperation to start up again between the EU and Togo, which is still subject to respect for the commitments made in April 2004 by the Togo authorities, notably in respect of human rights and public freedoms.
In a press release last Friday, Louis Michel, European Commissioner for development policy declared, “I take note of the official results of the presidential election made by the Constitutional Court of Togo and of the inauguration of Mr Faure Gnassimgbe as the new president of Togo…It is essential that Tog now goes down the road of national reconciliation, which can alone lead to the return of calm and serenity in the country. I am following new measures taken attentively and hope that they go in the direction of new dialogue”.
The Commissioner reiterated, in this connection that the European Union fully supported the efforts made by the European Community of West African States 5ECOWAS) and the African Union and underlined the primary importance that the EU placed on respect of the twenty two commitments made by the Togo government in the political consultations with the EU as part of Article 96 in the Cotonou Agreement based on respect for human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law etc.
Louis Michel explained that “respect for these twenty two commitments will be a major criterion on which the action of the Togo authorities will be judged by the EU”.
EUROPE would like to point out that relations between the EU and Togo, suspended in 1993, began to normalise in August 2004. Political consultations begun on 14 April 2004 were concluded in November 2004 with a decision on aid that was based on strict conditions: the effective mobilisation of available funds for Togo under the 9th EDF would depend on full respect for the promises made.