By : EDWARD QORRO in Arusha

HEADS of State from the six East African Community (EAC) partners will meet in Arusha later this month for the 21st Ordinary Summit for monetary union matters, among others.

The EAC Secretariat has already dispatched invitations to the member countries for the much awaited summit scheduled for February 29.

“The summit is still on as planned and we look forward to the full representation and participation of the member states,” disclosed EAC’s Media Coordinator, Mr Florian Mutabazi in a telephone interview with ‘Daily News’ yesterday.

Though he would not divulge the agendas to be discussed, Mr Mutabazi hinted that a raft of issues including the envisioned East African Monetary Union (EAMU) will dominate the talks.

The meeting of the six EAC leaders could possibly delve on the upcoming election in Tanzania and Burundi, slated for May and October this year respectively.

EAC Secretariat’s confirmation on the upcoming Heads of State summit comes four months after the postponement of the initial meeting that was scheduled for November 30 last year, but failed to take place due to lack of quorum.

The summit also comes a time when the Regional Economic Community is grappling with lack of commitment demonstrated by some of the EAC member states in remitting their financial obligations to the Secretariat.

This has indeed become an Achilles heel to the 20 year old regional intergovernmental organisation of six Partner States, with some of its organs calling for the addressing of the dire financial crisis facing them.

Last year, the East African Civil Society Organisations Forum(EACSOF) filed its petition before the East African Legislative Assembly(EALA) in a bid of rectifying the dire situation.

EACSOF had in the petition made a number of prayers for consideration by the Assembly on matters it deemed of concern to itself and citizens of the region.

The petition signed by Acting Executive Director Ms Martha Makenge, avers two critical matters; on the implementation of the budget of the EAC after being passed by EALA and assented to by the Summit and on the implementation of the Customs Union and the Common Market Protocols with specific focus on implementation of Article 24 of the Customs Union Protocol (on the EAC Trade Remedies Committee).

Source : dailynews.co.tz

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