By Aggrey
Mutambo
African Union members
states have converged on Addis Ababa to, among others, elect the new
chairperson of the AU Commission as well as eight other commissioners.
The bloc will also
deliberate the re-admission of Morocco.
It quit in 1984 to
protest recognition and admission of the Sahrawi Republic to the Organisation
of African Unity (OAU), the AU predecessor.
Rabat considers
Sahrawi Republic part of its territory.
Here is how the
programme of the meeting looks like:
Meeting
Heads of state are
expected to hold a closed-door meeting from 9am (0600 GMT).
Kagame
Report
After the meeting, the
union will adopt a report prepared by President Paul Kagame and his team on how
to reform the AU and make it a more financially independent.
Kagame report has
suggested that AU members fund the organisation through a 0.2 per cent levy on
imports.
Kenya, Ethiopia, Chad
and Senegal say they have already set up escrow accounts to collect these money
and remit it to the AU.
But the confusion is
on which type of imports the levy applies.
Ideally, the Kagame
report implies that goods coming into Africa from elsewhere but this could
upset existing trade agreements between individual African countries and the
outside world.The Kagame team was tasked to draw up proposals after it emerged
the AU is reliant on donor funds.
Eighty per cent of its
annual budget comes from EU, US, Turkey and China.
In fact the report
points at the perennial delays or even defaulting on member fees by some poor
states within the bloc.
This has made the AU
largely lame-duck, unable to respond to crises around the continent in time.
Photo
Session
Thereafter, the
leaders will emerge for a photo session.
-Africanews
Eighty per cent of its
annual budget comes from EU, US, Turkey and China.
In fact the report
points at the perennial delays or even defaulting on member fees by some poor
states within the bloc.
This has made the AU
largely lame-duck, unable to respond to crises around the continent in time.
Photo
Session
Thereafter, the
leaders will emerge for a photo session.
-Africanews
AEP
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