Gaddafi pushes AU to adopt EU style

  1. Posted on Friday 3 July 2009 - 09:21
    accreporter
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    Kent Mensah, AfricaNews editor in Accra, Ghana
    Libyan leader and current head of the African Union Muammar Gaddafi is pushing hard at a summit he is hosting for African leaders to adopt his age long and 'controversial' plan of turning the African Union (AU) into a bloc similar to the European Union (EU).
    Gaddafi
    Meanwhile, media reports being monitored by AfricaNews have it that the African heads of state at the dawn of today approved a plan to enhance the powers of the AU. The plan mandates the AU to coordinate defence policy and trade negotiations, Reuters quoted a participant at the summit to have said.

    The report said a document enhancing the powers of the African Union's executive body was approved at about 4 a.m. (0200 GMT) after many hours of discussions at the summit, Benin's Foreign Minister Jean-Marie Ehouzou, told reporters.

    "We have given agreement for the coordination of foreign affairs and defence," he said. "The states are ready to cede a little bit a part of their sovereignty for the benefit of the (Union)."

    The document has to be ratified by member states' parliaments before it comes into force.

    The structure will create a president, a vice-president, and a secretary of peace and security and common defence, BBC news said. Other secretaries will replace the current union's commissioners.

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