The European Union on Monday proposed talks with the ruling junta in Guinea, hoping to encourage the introduction of the rule of law in return for the resumption of suspended EU aid.
In a letter to Prime Minister Kabine Komara, the EU on Monday decided ”to invite your country for consultations in order … to study the situation in depth and, where appropriate, take steps to remedy it.”
Komara is a political neophyte who was installed by the military junta which seized power in Guinea last December.
The letter marks the official opening of the consultation process set out in the 2000 Cotonou Agreement on relations between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific nations in case of serious threats to democracy and human rights.
The talks in Brussels should cover in particular ”a transition roadmap” for the country including ”the organisation of free and transparent general and presidential elections” by the end of the year.
Under the terms of the agreement, they would normally open within a month.
”Pending the outcome of these consultations, the [European] Commission has taken protective measures concerning cooperation projects in Guinea,” the letter said, referring to the suspension of aid.
The junta seized power December 23 after the death of veteran president Lansana Conte, leading to the EU’s suspension of aid.
The new leaders had originally promised to organise free elections by December 2010, but revised that decision in January after objections from political parties and international organisations.
They have now undertaken to hold polls by the end of 2009.
Conte, who was 74 when he died, had ruled Guinea for 24 years with an iron fist and was only the second leader that the world’s leading bauxite-exporting country had known in 50 years.
In 2004, after municipal elections condemned as undemocratic, the European Union opened similar talks with Conakry.
Back in the capital Conakry, the international contact group following the situation in Guinea since the putsch met on Monday for talks with both the junta leaders and political parties, unions and civil groups.
Komara said he hoped the meeting would ”focus on getting financing on track” for the presidential election the junta promised to call. — Sapa-AFP