The political and security situations in Mali and the development Guinea Bissau are among issues that will top the agenda of the two-day 44th Ordinary Session of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government taking place in the Ivorian administrative capital of Yamoussoukro from Friday 28th March 2014.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency Kadré Desire Ouédraogo will present to the regional leaders a memorandum on the post-conflict situations in Mali and Guinea Bissau which has fixed presidential elections next month in line with the ECOWAS-facilitated road map following the defence and security sector reforms in that country.
The summit will also listen to the status report on the situation in Mali by the Mediator, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, and his co-mediator, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of Nigeria.
The summit, to be addressed by United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for West Africa and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, will also elect a new Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority, to succeed outgoing Chair, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara who held the position for two years.
The two-day session will also consider the 2013 Annual Report of the President of the Commission, the reports of the 71st Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers and the Council’s 12th and 13th Extraordinary Sessions, and the report of the 31st Session of the Mediation and Security Council.
The summit will be preceded on Tuesday 25 March 2014 also in Yamoussoukro by the 31st Ordinary Session of the Mediation and Security Council (MSC), comprising Foreign Affairs and Defence Ministers of Member States, which will also discuss the political and security situations in Mali and Guinea-Bissau, particularly the regional mediation efforts in these two Member States.
The MSC will also consider the Memorandum on the after-action review of ECOWAS multidimensional initiatives and responses to the crises in Mali, the Memorandum on the establishment of the Peace Support Operations Division and the Memorandum on the organization’s Integrated Maritime Policy.
That meeting will be followed by the 13th Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers on Wednesday 26 March which will consider the outcome of the Meeting of the Ministerial Committee on Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Negotiations between West Africa and the European Union, held on 17 February 2014 in Dakar.
They will also consider a proposal by the ministers of national security on the introduction of biometric identification card and the abolition of the residence permit requirement under the 1979 protocol on free movement of persons, the right of residence and establishment.
The ministers will also consider and adopt the report of the just concluded meeting of the Community Judicial Council of 19th March 2014 concerning the recruitment of the judges of the Community Court of Justice.
