ACP/EU meeting fails over Zimbabwe ban

Representatives of the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) group pulled out of a joint parliamentary session with the European Union (EU) on Monday because the EU banned two Zimbabwean ministers from its premises. The fifth ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) would have brought together members of the European parliament and the elected representatives of the ACP countries that have signed the Cotonou Agreement which deals with trade and aid issues between the countries. The agenda included important items such as trade tariffs, diamonds and conflict, famine and drought, health funding and gender issues. "They are are just discussing some household matters, but most delegates are heading home," Nigel Bruce, South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance delegate to the meeting told IRIN. The EU delegation would continue with the agenda, to give its delegates a chance to ask prepared questions, but it would be without ACP input. The row started when Belgium, home of the European Parliament, gave Zimbabwe's Minister for State Enterprises Paul Mangwana and Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development Christopher Kuruneri visas to enter the country. This was in spite of EU sanctions imposed on government ministers from Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF after it rejected the results of the country's March presidential poll. Bruce said the Belgian authorities decided that the ministers fell into two of the categories of exception and issued the visas. However, JPA co-president Glenys Kinnock, announced that the two ministers would not be allowed onto the premises. "This goes against the rules of the Cotonou Agreement and it is against JPA regulations. It is a joint body and so they [the ACP] should have been consulted," Bruce said. Last minute attempts to rescue the session failed. This included asking the two ministers to withdraw, but they refused. A brief news report from the EU confirmed the withdrawal. Bruce added that the ACP was also worried about setting a precedent which would allow the EU to decide which delegates it deemed were acceptable.