Werk van de parlementaire vergadering ACP-EU - europarlementariërs willen een sterkere positie in Zimbabwe (en)

In adopting an own initiative report on the work of the African Caribbean Pacific - European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA), MEPs urge the JPA to adopt a strong common position concerning the failure of democracy, rule of law, human rights and the economic system in Zimbabwe and to insist that international travel bans on key figures in the Zimbabwean regime are fully respected.

The next meeting of the JPA takes place in Wiesbaden Germany from 23 June to 28 June. The situation in Zimbabwe is on the agenda and the JPA will vote on a resolution on this topic.

The report calls upon the Commission to honour its commitment without delay on the basis of the procedure applied in the case of the regulation establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation.

The Assembly met twice in the course of 2006. The 11th session was held at Vienna (Austria) from 17 to 22 June and the 12th session was held at Bridgetown (Barbados) from 18 to 23 November. 2006 is the first year in which the sessions were reversed. Nine resolutions were adopted in that year, and there were seven joint delegations. In the course of its proceedings the Assembly welcomed not only the successive Co-Presidents of the ACP-EU Council but also the Members of the Commission responsible for development and humanitarian aid and for trade.

The report calls upon the ACP countries' national parliaments strongly to urge their governments and the Commission to ensure that they, in collaboration with civil society organisations, are constantly involved in the programming, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the national strategy documents relating to cooperation between the EU and their country (2008-2013 period)

MEPs also regret the use of voting in separate colleges, which led to the rejection of the resolution on East Africa at the Bridgetown Session, even though a majority of the Assembly members supported the resolution.