Economic and Social Committee
Represents the interest of labour, employers and consumer organisations in the European Union and comprises of 222 members. Its operative location is Brussels.
Court of Auditors
Is the seat of European Union Audit which takes charge of auditing the revenues and the expenditure under the European Union Budget. It is located in Luxemburg.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
Discuss any two institutions put in place by the EU for the economic and political integration of Europe.
3.1.2 African Union (Formerly Organisation of African Unity)
The initial disunity amongst African nations was due to their colonial past as the partitioning of Africa by foreign interests only made Africans to be inclined to the colonisers and not to themselves any longer. When it became glaring that they would be in perpetual slavery unless they came under a single umbrella, the colonial masters employed all tactics to prevent the efforts from becoming a reality but to no avail.
Having come together as Organisation of African Unity, the first obstacle was cleared. The next step was the mapping out of the aims and objectives of the organization. These included:
• Promotion of unity and solidarity amongst African States.
• Coordinating and intensifying efforts to achieve a better life for the people of Africa.
• Defending their sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.
• Eradication of all forms of colonialism from Africa.
• Promoting international co-operation, having due regard to the charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
These aims and objectives were always resorted to as pre-conflict peace-building mechanisms because African States were just evolving and struggling to shake off the dust of colonialism. The implementation of these aims rested square on the shoulders of some institutions including the following:
• The Assembly of Heads of State and Governments
• The Council of Ministers
• The General Secretariat and
• The Commission of Mediation, Arbitration and Conciliation.
The above preamble gives an insight into the basis for the formation of the OAU – the challenges of colonialism, imperialism, exploitation and other vices.
With the decolonisation of Namibia is 1990, it appeared that the OAU, set out originally to deal with basically African issues, could not be indifferent to international politics. The metamorphosis of European Economic Community into European Union compelled African Heads of State to rethink and cast their minds back to the old injunctions of the late Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Sekon-Toure of Guinea and others.
On the 3rd day of June 1991, a treaty signed in Abuja, Nigeria, recommended the creation of an African Union and a Pan-African
was finally resolved that OAU should metamorphose into African Union. Thus, in July, 2002, at the summit of the African Heads of State and Government in South Africa, the Organisation of Africa Union ceased to exist and in its place came the African Union.
You need to know whether the change from OAU to AU was just in its nomenclature or it has any element of pragmatic dynamism. Before going into this, it is instructive to know the organs of the AU. The organs of the African Union are:
- The Assembly of Heads of State which is the Supreme Organ;
- The Executive Council;
- Specialised Special Committees;
- Pan-African Parliament;
- Court of Justices;
- Economic and Social Council, Financial Institutions, and other organs which the Assembly may deem fit to establish.
The objectives of the AU according to Article 3 of its charter are as follows:
1. To achieve greater unity and solidarity between African countries and the peoples of Africa;
2. To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its member-states;
3. To accelerate rapid political and socio-economic integration of the continent;
4. To promote and defend common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples;
5. To encourage international co-operation, taking due account of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human rights;
6. To promote peace, security and stability on the continent.
7. To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance;
8. To promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the African charter on human and peoples’ rights and other relevant human rights instruments;
9. To establish the conditions, which will enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations;
10. To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the integration of African economies;
11. To promote co-operation in all fields of human activity to raise the living standards of African peoples;
12. To coordinate and harmonise the policies between the existing and future regions’ economic communities for the gradual attainment of the objectives of the Union;
13. To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, particularly in science and technology;
14. To work with relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable diseases and the promotion of good health on the continent.
The above objectives define the role expectations of the African Union.
Analysing the impact of that continental body will be carried out after concluding the role expectations of at least two other regional organisations, the Economic Community of West African States and the Arab League.