AU Executive Council: Algeria Supports an Extraordinary Session

Algeria’s support for the proposal to hold an extraordinary session of the Executive Council of the African Union next September to prepare for the next G20 summit and determine the goals and priorities to be achieved, after the continental union obtained membership in this group, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad, Ahmed Attaf, announced, on Friday in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

In his address on the item related to the participation of the African Union in the G20, which he delivered during the work of the 45th session of the Executive Council of the African Union, which started on Thursday, Mr Attaf explained; “Our continent’s seizure of permanent membership in the G20 is considered a valuable and strategic gain in the fullest sense of the word, but we were satisfied throughout the past months to celebrate this gain without thinking deeply about how to use it to serve the priorities and aspirations of our continent in various areas of growth and development.”

“We previously discussed the issue of representing the African Union in the G20 meetings at various levels, but participation is not a goal in itself,” he added.

From this perspective, the Algerian delegation believes that two basic issues deserve our full attention and care, considering that “the first issue is procedural and concerns how to prepare for the G20 meetings”.

Without asking who would undertake the task of taking care of this aspect (the Commission, the Member States, or a mixture in preparation between the Commission and the Member States), Attaf confirmed that “an issue of such importance, from Algeria’s point of view, requires the mobilization of Member States to study the issues on the G20 agenda and formulating unified positions on it”.
Therefore, Attaf added, “We support the proposal to hold an extraordinary session of the Executive Council in the coming September to prepare for the next G20 summit.”

The second issue, which is “absolutely objective and fundamental” – according to Attaf, relates to “defining the goals that we seek to achieve through the African Union’s membership in the G20 and how to employ this membership to advance the priorities of a strategic nature for our continent, especially those that go to the heart of reforming international financial and monetary institutions and addressing the structure of global debt and international development financing”.