EAC Political Federation findings to be tabled in November

Heads of State from the five partner states of the East African Community (EAC) will in November this year receive the official findings of their countries on the fast tracking of the bloc’s political federation. The revelation was made by EAC Secretary General, Juma Mwapachu, during his meeting with a delegation from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) last week. In accordance with the Treaty for the establishment of the EAC, the bloc embarked on the process of accelerating the process of integration towards a political federation, the fourth stage of the process. “The EAC Council of Ministers have been directed to review the reports and submit concrete recommendations to the Summit at its sitting in November 2009 on the way forward on the establishment of the Political Federation,” noted Mwapachu. He also informed the delegation that during the recent Summit, the EAC Heads of State received findings of the national consultative process on fast tracking the political federation conducted in Rwanda and Burundi. “According to the findings, the people of the two new partner states indicated support for the process,” added Mwapachu.Rwanda and Burundi are new entrants to the regional bloc having joined in 2007. The National Consultative Process is perceived as a vehicle to establish people’s attitudes and opinions on the key dimensions of the planned Federation. Awareness, attitude and opinion are the three population parameters that were considered during the consultations. Apart from Tanzania, peoples of the other four countries-Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda were in support of the fast tracking. A release from the bloc’s secretariat indicates that Mwapachu briefed the delegation on a wide range of issues of the EAC integration, noting that in overall, the Community was making tremendous progress. The release also quotes Mwapachu as having said that the EAC Customs Union was fast consolidating and the region was moving to the second stage of the integration process. “The EAC Common Market Protocol signing is targeted for November 2009 by the EAC Heads of State and implementation by January 2010. Work on the third stage of the integration process (Monetary Union) is already on course,” said Mwapachu. He informed the delegation that at the 12th Meeting of the EAC Monetary Affairs Committee (MAC) held in Kigali on May 7, 2009, the Governors of the Central Banks of the EAC Partner States affirmed their strong conviction that a durable Monetary Union depends on achieving macroeconomic convergence with regard to price stability, sound fiscal and monetary policies, and exchange rate stability. He said the Central Bank Governors noted with satisfaction the progress of the comprehensive study on the EAC Monetary Union to be undertaken by the European Central Bank and that the study will inform the way forward to the realization of the EAC Monetary Union. Meanwhile, the Swedish government has engaged SIDA to prepare a new strategy for regional development cooperation in the Sub-Saharan Africa during the year 2009. Mwapachu hailed the Swedish government for its support to the realization of the EAC Partnership Fund, lake Victoria Basin Commission, and HIV/Aids mitigation. He informed the delegation that the bloc was in the process of developing a robust Climate Change Master Plan which addresses climate change detection, vulnerabilities, mitigation strategies, as well as adaptation measures. In this regard, he requested for an active support for EAC to take the lead in the finalization and implementation of the Climate Change Master Plan. The SIDA delegation was led by the Assistant Director General Operations, Magnus Lindell, accompanied by the Regional Director based at the Embassy of Sweden in Kenya, Kikki Nordin, and the head of the Swedish-Norwegian Regional HIV/Aids Team for Africa based in Lusaka, Zambia, Dr. Kristina Ramstedt. Ends