Summit of Leaders of Arab Maghreb Union In The Offing

The Secretary General of the Shura or Consulative Council of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), Mr Said Mokadem, has declared that efforts are currently being undertaken in a bid to bring together the leaders of the Maghreb countries around the same table as part of a projected Maghrebian summit.

He stressed that such a high-level gathering would be aimed at redrawing the roadmap of the countries’ concerned at the political and economic level for a better unity and cohesion so as to face up to the latest manifold developments unfolding on the regional and international scenes.  

Through this retrieved cohesion and mutual understanding geared to promoting the edification of a solid Arab Maghreb Union, he hoped as a result for the opening of borders and the abolition of visas between the Maghreb countries in order to facilitate the movement of people and goods and to foster fruitful exchanges at all levels.

As a recall, in this context, the Minister for Maghreb Affairs, the African Union and the Arab League, Abdelkader Messahel, said of late that Algeria proposed to overhaul the system and structures of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) to make them keep abreast with the current changes and enable the Union to live up to the ongoing regional and international challenges.

Algeria has been advocating, since 2012, the revamping of the operating system and structures of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU)  in order to adapt to the unfolding changes and to enable it to deal with regional and international challenges facing the region, including terrorism, illegal migration and drug trafficking, said Mr Messahel in a statement to the press on the eve of the opening session of the 34th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the AMU held recently in Tunis.

For the Minister, the statutes that have been governing the UMA for 27 years “are not adapted to the sweeping international changes now underway.” Therefore, he said, “Algeria has continued to plead for the reform of AMU structures and the revision of its constituent texts it now considers as obsolete.” 

“The revival of AMU is highly dependent on economic rejuvenation in the whole region”, Mr Messahel asserted to this effect.