Lawmakers from the world’s poorest nations have vowed to resist fresh attempts by the European Union (EU) to bar Zimbabwe from taking part in a forthcoming meeting of the African Carribean and Pacific (ACP) and EU nations, a newspaper said on Thursday.
Parliamentarians from the 15-member EU and 77-strong ACP are due to meet next month in Italy for routine talks on issues of cooperation.
”We are confident that the meeting in Rome will take place with all the 77 [ACP] members, and Zimbabwe will be included,” Adrien Houngbedji, Benin’s parliamentary speaker and co-president of the ACP-EU parliamentary assembly, was quoted as saying in the state-run Herald newspaper.
The EU last year imposed travel restrictions on 72 of Zimbabwe’s top government and ruling party officials, including President Robert Mugabe, accusing them of human rights abuses and electoral fraud.
In November last year ACP lawmakers abandoned talks with the EU after European parliamentarians refused to allow two blacklisted Zimbabwean ministers to enter their Brussels premises.
The EU in February postponed a summit with African leaders that was due to take place in April in Lisbon because it failed to win a guarantee that Mugabe — who is barred from entering EU territory — would stay away.
Most European countries had said they would boycott the summit if Mugabe was invited.
African nations meanwhile indicated they would stay away unless Zimbabwe was included. Portugal wants to host the summit next year.
Houngbedji, who is in Zimbabwe at the head of an ACP delegation seeking to mend relations between Zimbabwe and the EU said his team was also in the country to express its suport for Zimbabwe.
The team held talks with Mugabe, ruling Zanu-PF officials and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change leadership. — Sapa-AFP