Reasons by 51 Member States for Establishment of African Economic Community (AEC)

Many Africans are unaware that alongside what is now the African Union(AU) is what is the "African Economic Community". Signed in Abuja, Nigeria (and known as the Abuja Treaty) of 1991, it came into force on 12 May, 1994--exactly seventeen years ago today.

In reality, 3 June will be 20 years since it was established, probably shifting the celebrations of 12 May up to 3 June to make it truly a Pan-African celebration!

According to the Republic of South Africa's official website, "since May 1994, the OAU has been operating on the basis of the OAU Charter as well as the AEC Treaty, and the organisation is now officially referred to as the OAU/AEC". It remains unclear whether that now means under the AU that the AEC is an AU/AEC...

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MINDFUL of the principles of international law governing relations between States;
BEARING IN MIND the principles and objectives set forth in the Charter of the
Organisation of African Unity;

CONSCIOUS of our duty to develop and utilise the human and natural resources of
the Continent for the general well-being of our peoples in all fields of human
endeavour;

RECOGNIZING the various factors which hinder the development of the Continent
and seriously jeopardise the future of its peoples;

HAVING REGARD to the various resolutions and declarations adopted by our
Assembly in Algiers in September 1968, in Addis Ababa in August 1970 and May
1973 providing that the economic integration of the Continent is a pre-requisite for
the realisation of the objectives of the OAU;

HAVING REGARD to our decision taken in Libreville in July 1977 endorsing the
Kinshasa Declaration adopted by our Council of Ministers in December 1976
concerning the establishment of an African Economic Community, objective to be
attained in successive stages;

CONSIDERING the “Monrovia Declaration of Commitment on the Guidelines and
Measures for National and Collective Self-reliance in Economic and Social
Development for the Establishment of a New International Order” and which, interalia,
calls for the Creation of an African Common Market as a prelude to an African
Economic Community;

CONSIDERING FURTHER the Lagos Plan of Action and the Final Act of Lagos of
April 1980 reaffirming our Commitment to establish, by the year 2000, an African
Economic Community in order to foster the economic, social and cultural
integration of our Continent;

FINALLY CONSIDERING our Declaration made on the occasion of the Twentyfifth
Anniversary of the OAU and, in particular, the reaffirmation of our
commitment and our determination to take the necessary steps to accelerate the
establishment of the proposed African Economic Community;

NOTING that the efforts already made in the sub-regional and regional sectoral
economic co-operation are encouraging and justify a larger and fuller economic
integration;

NOTING the need to share, in a equitable and just manner, the advantages of cooperation
among Member States in order to promote a balanced development in all
parts of the Continent;

Have decided to establish an African Economic Community constituting an integral
part of the OAU and hereby agree as follows (...)

Read the full document here: http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/Documents/Treaties/Text/AEC_Treaty_1991.pdf

Understanding the Relationship between the AU, Africa's RECs and the African Economic Community(AEC)

from: http://regionswatch.blogspot.com/2010/08/understanding-relationship-between-au.html

If you are new to this blog, you might not know that I like to go on a bit...especially about regional integration;-))

Seriously, in my estimation, it is a fascinating discipline of international relations(IR) that's ever-so-ramifying, and ever-so-complex.

It's ramifying because of the various dimensions to it (c.f. the five different kinds of regional integration that exist, and the implications they have for the development of any kind of integration project), and complex because the more answers you get, the more questions arise!

Take the case of the African Union, the African Economic Community, and the Regional Economic Communities.

So we already know of the African Union.

This year, it celebrates its year of Peace and Security. It has an interesting website on http://www.makepeacehappen.net, where it is counting down to 21 September--the day of Peace. We also know that Uganda suffered a carnage on the last day of the FIFA 2010 World Cup because Al-Shabaab wanted to punish that country for sending troops to Somalia for the AU's Mission in Somalia

Last week I touched on the "rationalisation of the Regional Economic Communities". where I offered a brief historical survey as to how and why Africa, in its discourse on integration, likes to talk about "regional economic communities". The key year to remember is 2006--an important year for discussions and implementations on RECs.

What about the African Economic Community? (AEC)

I'd be happy to hear what you know of it--or don't.

I'm always operating from the assumption that what I offer here is assisting in building up the knowledge of someone, somewhere. So give me my soapbox, please!

Truth be told, the AEC is already in operation, and has been since May 1994. The Treaty establishing the AEC was signed in ABuja, Nigeria in 1991. The AEC offers a framework for continental integration. The RECS are mere building blocs towards the full realisation of the AEC.

As regards the AEC, it has set no less than SIX stages to be fully operational. Starting from 1994, it has allowed 34 years for FULL political and economic integration. That makes 2018/2019 an important year. So, if we're lucky, by 2020, the African Economic Community should be fully operational, with the 8 AU-recognised RECs possibly subsumed under regions of North, Central, East, South and West African Economic Communities.

I believe the reality to be very different by 2020. As RECs gain prestige in their comparative advantages of peace/conflict management; infrastructure, etc, they would be wont to maintain themselves as legal personalities in their own right, and not necessarily want to subsume their staff and competencies under one sub-regional economic community!

If what Ghanaian lawyer and academic Dr.Richard Frimpong Oppong says is anything to go by in his fantastic piece "the african union, the african economic community and africa's regional economic communities", given that the African Economic Community does not have a legal personality--that is to say that it has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities under law, just as natural persons (humans) do--it already makes the framework upon which the African Union operates rather shaky and tenuous.

This is because while there is a protocol establishing the relationship between the AEC and RECs, "to what extent are the RECs bound by decisions of the AEC? Since the RECs, which have their own legal personality, are not parties to the AEC Treaty, what is the legal basis for assuming that they will merge and form the African Economic Community?"[italics are that of Dr.Oppong in his piece on p.94]

In my opinion, this is the crux of his piece--and a very important one at that too. Even more important is "rationalising", if you will, the relationship between the AEC and RECs as they progress and advance in their development. This other important point ought not to be lost on us mere mortals and students as we cogitate over the future of African integration and where the AU is going.

In my view, Dr.Oppong has opened up a whole new can of worms around African integration--some of which I will for sure be touching on over the next couple of weeks.

Can you blame me when I continue to search for the elusive quest of a critical and progressive look at regional integration, and still claim that it is ever-ramifying?