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`EU bloc no model for EAC integration`
2007-05-14 08:55:30
By Judica Tarimo
A top European Union official dismissed perceptions that regional integration in his area could serve as a model for the East African economic and political integration Community.
The head of delegation of the European Commission, Ambassador Frans Baan said last week in Dar es Salaam, that EU project is far from complete and that the implementation of full monetary union and agreement to European constitution continue to be elusive goals.
Ambassador Baan was speaking at a forum co-organised by the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology and the EU to mark EU’s 50th anniversary aimed at exchanging notes between the two blocs, in the wake of myths and perceptions amongst East Africans that EU might serve as a model for progressive and result-oriented EAC
`I am not revealing secrets if I admit that EU achievements made in the first fifty years came with uncertainties and hesitations and occasionally through painful arguments and recriminations` he said.
Ambassador Baan said there are many things EU and East Africa Commuity could have done differently and some even better.
`I mention this to illustrate that there is nothing such as a model of good practice in political or economic integration,` he said
He said each EU member has its own ideas on the limits of widening and deepening the union. These ideas, he said, were not always openly stated.
Baan quoted a recent statement by Belgium Prime Minister who said: `It is necessary for each EU member to come with their perception of how European integration must move forward—masks must fall.`
EAC Secretary General, Ambassador Juma Mwapachu, said at the event that EAC served a model for the EU, as the latter learned a lot from the collapsed EAC.
`Unlike EU, we (EAC) have shared values in terms of language (Kiswahili), culture, and lifestyle etc. On top of that, there was effective participation of people in the course of establishing EAC,` said Mwapachu.
`Free movement of people in the EU is still nightmare,` said the secretary general.
The official appealed to East Africans to shun wrong perceptions on the EAC integration process in many contexts—including enlargement programme, which seeks to embrace Rwanda and Burundi, which have been rocked in civil strives and ethnic-driven clashes.
`If we left out these people (Burundi and Rwanda), we will fuel more conflicts and political instabilities. The best approach is to embrace them to enhance durable peace and political stability,` said Mwapachu.
IPP Executive Chairman, Reginald Mengi, could not agree more with EAC boss when he said sidelining Rwanda and Burundi would not solve security-related problems in the region.
`It is easy to control problematic persons when you are close to them than when they are far. It is risky in terms of regional security to leave out Rwanda and Burundi. We have to accommodate them,` said Mengi.
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