Decision on African Integration - Doc. EX.CL/693(XX)

DECISION ON AFRICAN INTEGRATION
Doc: EX.CL/693(XX)

The Assembly,

1. TAKES NOTE of the Report and Declaration of the Fifth African Union (AU) Conference of Ministers in charge of Integration (COMAI V) held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 8 to 9 September 2011;

2. DECIDES to devote, in line with conditions to be determined by the Commission, one of its ordinary sessions to considering development and integration issues;

3. ADOPTS the first Plan of Action of the Minimum Integration Programme and REQUESTS the Commission to set up a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating the Plan;

4. INVITES Member States to speed up the integration process by empowering regional and continental organizations in the specific areas in which consensus has been reached and to initiate, in this regard, actions to:

1. promote free movement of persons, goods, services and capital;

2. speed up the ratification and effective implementation of legal instruments adopted within the framework of the integration process; and,

3. emphasize intra-Africa partnerships;

5. ALSO INVITES Member States, the Commission and the Regional Economic Communities to develop programmes and multi-national projects in areas such as water, energy, the environment, health and control of cross-border pandemics like HIV/AIDS, Ebola fever, Rift Valley fever and Yellow fever;

6. URGES Member States to internalize the relevant legal instruments and to take into account regional and continental integration programmes and projects in their planning processes, and also include a commitment to the integration process in their legislation;

7. INVITES the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) and the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) to draw inspiration from the tripartite arrangement between the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC ) and the East African Community (EAC), and create a second pole of integration so as to speed up the establishment of the African Economic Community;

8. REQUESTS the Commission, in cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), to develop an effective strategy for sustainable growth and development to take African countries out of the Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs);

9. ALSO REQUESTS the Commission to submit to the Executive Council through the Permanent Representatives’ Committee (PRC) a report on the status of integration.