Foreign Affairs Minister Rosemary Museminari has returned from Tripoli, Libya where she was attending the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union which agreed to transform the African Union Commission into African Union Authority.

The Saturday meeting of the Executive Council which is made up of Ministers of Foreign Affairs from AU Member States discussed modalities for the implementation of the decision of the General Assembly of the Heads of States and Governments in Addis Ababa in February 2009 to change the administrative body of the AU.

The two-day meeting opened by the Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi, and chaired by Dr. Ali Triki, the Chairperson the Executive Council of the African Union decided to transform the Commission into an Authority in a bid to strengthen the institutional framework of the Union.

The move is also aimed at enabling the body to play its proper role in accelerating the political and Socio-Economic integration of the continent towards the achievement of the United States of Africa.

About the structure and size of the Authority, it was recommended that the Authority be made up of ten members including the President and vice President of the Authority and eight Secretaries (Ministers).

The Council also put forward the functions and responsibilities of this Executive Board of the Authority.

The Executive Council mandated the AU secretariat to work out the financial implication of the transformation and the report will be submitted to the ordinary session of the Executive Council in January 2010.

In a separate development, the Council took note of the information provided by the Foreign Affairs Minister of Togo regarding the attempted Coup d’Etat.

The Council issued a declaration condemning such practices and reaffirmed the rejection of such acts, by the African Union of any unconstitutional change of government.

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