Decision on the Activity Report of the Commission

DECISION ON THE ACTIVITY REPORT OF THE COMMISSION

Doc. EX.CL/755(XXII)

The Executive Council,

1. TAKES NOTE of the Report;

2. COMMENDS the Chairperson of the Commission and her team for the work done and the important initiatives taken since her assumption of duty in October 2012 and ENCOURAGES her to pursue her efforts towards the implementation of the priority actions of the Union Agenda;

3. RENEWS its commitment to provide all necessary support to the Commission through the allocation of adequate human and financial resources to enable it to effectively carry out its mandate, while underscoring the importance of greater coordination and harmonization of programmes and the definition of priority areas, taking into account the available resources and ensuring their judicious and optimal utilization with a view to achieving concrete results;

4. STRESSES the need to reduce the number of agenda items which will in turn curtail the number of decisions, most of which remain unimplemented;

5. AGREES on the need to hold an Extraordinary Session of the Executive Council in 1-2 April 2013I at AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, to consider urgent strategic issues, which are the Draft 2014 - 2017 Strategic Plan of the Commission and the Draft 2063 Strategic Framework for the African Union, preparations for the OAU/AU 50th Anniversary, the issue of proliferation of structures and institutions of the African Union as well as the implementation of Decisions;

6. CONDEMNS in no uncertain terms the recent barbaric terrorist attack on the In- Amenas gas plant in Algeria and COMMENDS the Algerian Government for the decisive action taken to put an end to such attacks and RECOMMENDS that the Assembly adopt a declaration in this regard;

7. REITERATES its full cooperation and firm commitment to help all Member States in the throes of crises and conflicts create conditions conducive to Peace and Security on the entire continent, the consolidation of democratic governance and the development of Africa’s immense resources with a view to accelerating its full development;

8. REQUESTS the Commission to take all the necessary measures for the organization of a referendum for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara in compliance with the relevant OAU Decisions and UN Resolutions;

9. INVITES the Commission and the RECs to speed up the operationalization of the African Standby Force and a Brigade that can be mobilized and made operational in the event of the emergence of any form of insecurity on the continent;

10. WELCOMES the positive development to ensure stabilization of the situation in Madagascar and Guinea Bissau and INVITES the Peace and Security Council to examine in the light of this development the issue of their return to the African Union;

11. ENCOURAGES the Commission, in collaboration with the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the United Nations, to intensify its efforts, towards the speedy implementation of appropriate solutions to the crisis in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, mainly through the rapid deployment of the International Neutral Force merged into the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUCO). Considering the humanitarian disaster and the risks of deterioration of the crisis it is a matter of great urgency. Furthermore, recalls the need to preserve the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of the DRC in compliance with the principles of the Constitutive Act of the African Union.