AU: Position on participation of SADR in AU-EU summit, accepted by all members

The position of the African Union on the participation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in the 5th African Union-European Union Summit scheduled on 29 and 30 November in Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) is accepted by all its members,” said Wednesday in Brussels, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat.

“I went to Morocco, where I met with King Mohamed VI. We talked about the African participation in the AU-EU summit and in this regard, the position of the African Union is accepted by all its members,” he said in a joint press conference with the head of the European diplomacy Federica Mogherini, held on the sidelines of the High level conference “Towards a Renewed Partnership with Africa.”

Stressing that the issue of the participation in the Abidjan Summit “is an African matter,” Moussa Faki Mahamat said that the African Union resolved the problem by deciding that “all the members of the African Union partake in this summit.” 

In fact, on 16 October, the AU Executive Council which met in an extraordinary session recalled that the SADR, as a member of the African Union, has the right to participate in the AU-EU summit. 

For her part, the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said that the European Union “supported the work done by Faki Mahamat these past few months” to find a solution to the issue of the participation in the 5th AU-EU summit, hailing his “extraordinary capacity to resolve a problem that could have been complicated.” 

“We expressed the interest that all the members of the African Union be present at the Abidjan Summit,” she said, underlining that “it is not up to the European Union to handle the issue of African participation in the summit.” 

“It is important for us that the African Union finds an African solution to the matter,” she said.SPS