Government sets up task force for AU Summit

Accra, May 2, GNA - Government has set up an Inter-Agency Task Force to achieve a successful African Union Meeting, which runs from June 25th to July 3rd, 2007.

The Task Force under the Chairmanship of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and NEPAD will be responsible for the planning and execution of the Summit, brings together officials from a number of state agencies.

They are the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Justice, National Security, The Interior, Information and Works and Housing. The rest are AESL, the State Protocol Department and the Office of the President.

Briefing journalists in Accra on Wednesday on preparations towards the African Union Summit, Nana Akufo-Addo said Ghana was committed to hosting a successful event and moving very fast to ensure that this was done with dispatch.

A tour of the main conference hall of the Accra International Conference Centre indicated feverish renovation works and laying and replacing of new chairs and carpets. Broken tiles and the restrooms were also being given a face lift.

Nana Addo said works at the AICC would be completed by May 15th, 2007.

He said the one item agenda is the great debate on the future and direction of the Union, noting that government had started holding consultations with a number of professionals and civil society organizations on a common position for Ghana.

The decision was taken at the 8th Ordinary Session of the Assembly, held in Addis Ababa in January this year. That Session asked member states to carry out the necessary national consultations to facilitate debate.

The Foreign Minister said Parliament would debate the matter thoroughly before the Summit.

"The debate has become necessary because we need to fashion a consensus on the future direction of the AU."

He noted that the Summit would discuss whether to have a European Union type or United States model of Union, stressing that the idea was rekindled on September 9, 1999 in Sirte, when the Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi launched a new continental organization to deal with Africa's critical development agenda.

He said the spread of globalization has necessitated a review of Africa's strategy for development if the continent was not to continue to be mired in widespread poverty and underdevelopment with all its demanding effects on the dignity and status of the African in the world. Nana Akufo-Addo said there was a clear recognition among African countries of the need to provide the AU with stronger continental machinery in order to work on agreed strategic areas of focus.

"To this end, the Assembly of the Union has set up two ad-hoc committees of Heads of State and government which concluded that the "necessity for an eventual union government is not in doubt". Secondly, "a union of the African people and not merely a Union of States and Governments" should be formed with "identifiable goals" based on a set of clearly identifiable shared values and communality of interest," Nana Akufo-Addo added.