EU cooperation could be reviewed

Consultation with the government of Zimbabwe would continue, despite last week's unsuccessful meeting between European Union (EU) representatives and President Robert Mugabe, sources in Brussels told IRIN on Tuesday.

"We're hoping a ministerial delegation from Harare will be in Brussels before the end of the year for talks," the source said.

Earlier this month, EU foreign ministers agreed to invoke Article 96 of the Cotonou agreement that governs relations between the 15-member bloc and its African, Caribbean and Pacific partners over concerns with human rights in Zimbabwe.

The move meant that the EU has formally asked Zimbabwe to discuss such issues as land reform, ending political violence, ensuring press freedom and judicial independence, and allowing election observers at next year's presidential poll.

The EU delegation - on a tour of central and southern Africa to review the Congolese peace process - said it had failed to hold constructive talks with Mugabe on Friday, and that its relations with the country had reached a low point.

"Our relations are now at a critical point, we have to admit that, we have arrived at a critical point," said Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who headed the EU team.

The EU source said that if the proposed ministerial talks in Brussels did not yield results then suspension of specific economic cooperation programmes with Zimbabwe could follow. "Zimbabwe gets a lot of preferential access to EU markets, particularly for its food products and textiles, this access may be reviewed."

Harare-based economist Tony Hawkins told IRIN that Zimbabwe could suffer economically if lucrative EU beef and sugar protocols were reviewed or cancelled. "The EU relationship is basically about aid and trade, the trade component is important to Zimbabwe, it's the kind of sanction that could definitely hurt the economy," he said.