African union poses step on African unity
Regional-Egypt, Politics, 6/29/2002

The creation of the African Union and, the All Africa Parliament marks a historical step in the march for the rising African Unity as a more unified and strong continent, said Egypt's Speaker of the People's Assembly.

Addressing the parliamentary conference in Cape Town on Thursday to mark the creation of the African Union, Ahmad Fathy Sorour said, "We are meeting while the African Union is in the threshold of emergence and a regional African order is in the making."

Transformation into African Union is the will of the African nations to achieve an economic integration and a political unity and reflects the hope that it would be tantamount to a mechanism that would be able to take Africa from the international dark shadows to a better position in order to build positive and strong partnership with the world powers, said Sorour.

He expressed his consent over the equal representation of the African countries in the fledging All Africa Parliament to be amended later in a way that would take into account representation in proportion. The objectives of the new parliament will be reduced into two parts, said Sorour.

First, providing advice and recommendations on ways to bolster the democratic institutions and rule of law and respect of human rights.

Second, giving recommendations on the liability and accountability of the legislation of the member states.

The Speaker of the parliament urged a revision of the national legislation in order to eliminate the articles impeding the African Union and to boost the economic potentials of the continent through an African system that would seek expansion and improvement of inter-African economic relations and settle inter-African disputes.

On his part, MP Zakaria Azmy, head of the presidential cabinet, said that there were political requirements, to which the African Union should attach paramount importance before the African court of Justice discharges its job.

He stressed pressing necessity to build and further the African potentials to enhance peace process.

Previous Stories:
  35 years of the life of The Organization of African Unity (OAU)   (5/25/2002)
  Euro-Mediterranean meetings kick start today in Athens   (5/20/2002)
  Morocco attends meeting of African parliamentary union   (5/7/2002)
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  African Summit approves African Union agreement   (7/11/2001)

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