EU Presidency Statement - Cross-border issues in West Africa

Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Acceding Countries, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia; the Candidate Countries, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey; the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro; and the EFTA countries, Iceland and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement.

Mr. President,

The European Union enjoys a rich and deep engagement with Africa, both directly and in partnership with the United Nations. Our commitment to Africa results from our belief that the promotion of peace and sustainable development in Africa constitutes one of the major challenges to the international community today. A fundamental principle of the European Union's relationship with Africa has been to assess our engagement there on a continental, regional, subregional, national or local level as called for by the issue at hand. Nowhere has the need for a regional approach been more evident in recent years than in West Africa.

Mr. President,

West Africa has suffered years of violence, population displacement, human rights abuses of the most heinous kind, and economic depression due to conflicts exacerbated by regional rivalries and insecurities. As peace begins to gain a foothold in West Africa, we now recognise not only the regional origin of many of the root causes of the conflicts there but also the logic of a regional approach to their solution. Challenges which demand this regional approach include: the reintegration of child soldiers, disarming and demobilising irregular and sometimes mercenary forces that do not respect national borders, protecting women and children from sexual violence, facilitating the return and resettlement of displaced persons and refugees, tackling the culture of impunity, restoring the rule of law, overcoming environmental degradation, and stemming the proliferation of small arms.

In this context, the European Union welcomes the Secretary-General's initiative in requesting the report from the Special Representative for West Africa, Mr. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, on defining a holistic strategy for addressing the regional problems in West Africa. In particular, we welcome the report's focus on providing practical action-oriented recommendations which provide us with much food for thought.

Mr. President,

The Secretary-General's report we discuss today calls for increasing the level of contact between UN senior staff in West Africa. Cognizant of the recommendations of the Brahimi report for improved co-ordination within multi-dimensional peacekeeping operations, it appears logical that we also seek to improve co-ordination among missions active within a subregion where improved contact and information sharing would assist these missions to fulfil their respective individual mandates with improved effectiveness. In this regard, the European Union commends the efforts that have already begun to implement a closer working relationship among the UN missions in West Africa with the series of meetings of the leaders of the UN operations in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d'Ivoire.

Mr. President,

A major theme running throughout the recommendations of the report from the Secretary-General is the need for improved regional integration in West Africa. In this context, it is worth noting that while the European Union continues to consider a regional strategy for West Africa focused on conflict prevention and resolution, one element of that strategy is already clear-regional integration is a key factor in addressing the over-arching challenge in West Africa of integrating short-term crisis-management activities with a longer-term preventive strategy. This is and will remain a central tenet of our engagement with West Africa, not least of all through the offices of the EU Presidency's Special Representative Mr. Hans Dahlgren.

The European Union has a close working partnership with the Economic Community of West African States, and the recent joint EU-UN assessment mission to West Africa focused on ways to increase cooperation with, and assist in strengthening the capacity of, ECOWAS.

The report we consider today highlights important areas where improved regional integration and co-operation will be of significant benefit. These areas include, inter alia: the need for the ratification and implementation by the countries of the region of all instruments designed to address issues such as child soldiers, small arms and mercenaries; the need for all countries of the region to abide by these instruments and for the international community to support national capacities for their implementation; the need for improved regional co-operation and dialogue through existing regional and subregional mechanisms; the importance of implementing DDR programmes in a coordinated fashion and with the close involvement of civil society; and the need for the careful planning of security sector reform, drawing on lessons learned from past UN missions in the region and elsewhere. In addition, regional integration will be all the more successful if actors such as the United Nations and its family of agencies, the African Union, NEPAD, the European Union, and the donor community act in concert with each other, with the countries of the region, and with ECOWAS.

Mr. President,

The European Union believes regional cooperation and dialogue will only strengthen the security of West Africa. The chief responsibility for fostering security and development in West Africa lies with the West African States themselves. In this regard the European Union calls on all the leaders in the region to engage in meaningful and constructive dialogue on the bilateral and regional level. We believe increased coordination among UN operations in the region and between all the actors in West Africa, can only underpin the efforts of the region to emerge from a period of prolonged and bitter conflict into a time of sustainable peace, security and development. The European Union stands ready as a willing partner to achieve this shared goal.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Special Court for Sierra Leone (23/3/2004)