Decision of the Joint Sitting Report of the Ministerial Committee on Scale of Assessment and Contributions and the Committee of Fifteen Ministers of Finance (F15)

DECISION OF THE JOINT SITTING REPORT OF THE MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE
ON SCALE OF ASSESSMENT AND CONTRIBUTIONS AND THE COMMITTEE OF
FIFTEEN MINISTERS OF FINANCE (F15)

The Assembly,

1. TAKES NOTE of the Report of the Ministerial Committee on Scale of Assessment and Contributions and F15;

2. ALSO TAKES NOTE of Executive Council Decision EX.CL/Dec.1089(XXXVI) of the 36th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council;

3. COMMENDS Member States for contributing 79% of the funds assessed to them in 2019 towards the Union Regular Budget;

4. ALSO COMMENDS 50 Member States for contributing US$154,124,812 to the AU Peace Fund since 2017, which demonstrates the high level of commitment by the Union to fully operationalise the Fund;

5. RECALLS Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.734(XXXII)on the scale of assessment and the Peace Fund requesting the AU High Representative for Financing the Union and the Peace Fund, supported by the Commission, to undertake regional consultations on the matter of assessing the Peace Fund and report back to the Executive Council in Niamey, Niger, in June 2019, and DECIDED that in the interim, the existing scale of assessment as applied to the regular budget of the Union shall be applied to the 2017-2019 assessment of the Peace Fund and, in the event no concrete recommendations emerge from the consultations, the new scale of assessment as applied for the regular budget shall also be applied to the Peace Fund from 2020-2022¹;

6. TAKES NOTE of the briefing of the AU High Representative on regional consultations on the scale of assessment of the AU Peace Fund and DECIDES that the target for the collection of the $400m in Member State contributions to the AU Peace Fund be extended by twenty four (24) months for full endowment of the Peace Fund by 2023; and REQUESTS the Commission to adjust accordingly the annual amounts paid to the Fund in order to demonstrate a reduced burden on Member States;

7. COMMENDS the High Representative for Financing of the Union and Peace Fund for the excellent work undertaken to meet with the regions on the matter of ¹ assessing the Peace Fund, and REQUESTS that the consultations be concluded, and that the High Representative reports back to the Executive Council in July 2020;

8. ALSO DIRECTS the Commission to consider all Member States’ assessed contributions to the Peace Fund during the interim period as payments on account while awaiting the conclusion of the regional consultations²;

9. DECIDES to suspend all discussions on whether sanctions for the non-payment of assessed contributions to the Peace Fund should be considered while regional consultations are under way until the High Representative on Financing the Union and Peace Fund has reported back to the Executive Council in July 2020 on the outcome of these consultations;

10. RECALLS Decision Ext/Assembly/AU/Dec.3(XI) of November 2018, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which adopted the strengthened sanctions regime for implementation as from July 2019, and FURTHER RECALLS Decision EX.CL/Dec.1071 (XXXV) in which the Commission was mandated to hold consultations with Member States on the elaboration of modalities for implementation of the strengthened Sanctions Regime and to submit a report by February 2020;

11. REQUESTS the PRC to expedite the alignment of the relevant provisions of the Assembly Rules of Procedure, AU Financial Rules and Regulations and the Statutes of the Commission for consideration and adoption by the relevant Policy Organs;

12. DECIDES to impose sanctions on Member States, in line with paragraph 3(c) of the November 2018 Assembly Decision Ext/Assembly/AU/Dec.3(XI);

13. RECALLS decision Ext/Assembly/AU/Dec.3(XI) which states that the Assembly may consider requests from Member States experiencing force majeure circumstances making them temporarily unable to pay their assessed contributions. Member States shall notify the Assembly in writing for consideration and decision;

14. TAKES NOTE of the requests from Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Seychelles and Burundi. ACKNOWLEDGES the challenges faced by these Member States in meeting their annual contributions to the Union, and REQUESTS the Commission to engage with Member States facing difficulties paying their contributions to the Union and those in arrears for two (2) or more years in order to agree on the payment plan for clearing the arrears, and report back to the Executive Council in July 2020;

15. RECALLS Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.578(XXV) which endorsed the recommendations of the Ad-Hoc Ministerial Committee that the new scale of assessment shall be based on achieving 100% of the Union’s Operational budget; 75% of Union’s Program budget; and 25% of Union’s Peace support operations budget, and REQUESTS the Commission to provide at the next meeting of the Executive Council a progress report on the attainment of such targets.