The East African Community (EAC) Sectoral Council on Legal and Judicial Affairs has gone ahead to deliberate on the draft Common Market Protocol in Arusha, Tanzania despite partner states failing to reach a consensus on three issues recently.

The council began last week to address several legal and judicial issues in the draft document.

"The scrutiny by the EAC Sectoral Council on Legal and Judicial Affairs is paving way for the heads of state summit,” a statement from the EAC Secretariat says.

The presidents of the five partner states will meet in Arusha, Tanzania, next week to decide on outstanding issues of the protocol among others.

This follows Tanzania’s persistent failure to agree with other states on issues concerning national identification and the access and use of land for economic activities.

All the partner states also agreed to bracket the permanent residence Article 19, which lays a foundation on the conditions and length of residence of non-citizens among others.

However disagreements were on whether, it is the partner states or the EAC Ministerial Council to conclude regulations or directives and annexes that are necessary to give full effect to the provisions of the Protocol.

Tanzania maintained it is the partner states and not the Council, while Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, and Uganda’s position is that this is the preserve of the Council of Ministers.       

The Common Market is the second step in the integration process after the Customs Union. If completely passed, the protocol will allow free movement of goods, persons, labour, services and capital.

According to a statement, the on-going meeting is also considering among others, the status of implementation of previous decisions made by the EAC Ministerial Council, Rwanda and Burundi’s contributions to the EAC Budget and a report of the High Level Task Force (HLTF) on the amendment of the treaty for the establishment of EAC.

The proposed amendments to the regional financial rules and regulations and a proposal on the establishment of a Sectoral Council on Environment and Natural Resources are also among the issues under consideration.

The meeting is the 7th meeting of the EAC Sectoral Council on Legal and Judicial Affairs. It is being conducted through different sessions.

After the session of Legislative Draftspersons and the Sectoral Committee on Legal and Judicial Affairs, the Deputy Attorneys General and Attorneys General will meet.

Ends