Council Decision EC/148/2002 related to the “Cotonou Agreement”, a Partnership Agreement between the Members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States [including Zimbabwe] and the European Community and its Member States signed at Cotonou in Benin on 23 June 2000. The agreement specifically ties measures to enhance trade and co-operation between state parties with “a political environment guaranteeing peace, security and stability, respect for human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law”.8 The linkage is intended “to promote and expedite the economic, cultural and social development of the ACP States, with a view to contributing to peace and security and to promoting a stable and democratic political environment.”9 Where a party has a concern that these objectives are not being met, Article 8 provides for inter-party dialogue in the hope of averting recourse to the Agreement’s non-execution clause. A formal request for Article 8 dialogue was made by the EU in February 2001 and accepted by Zimbabwe in March. However, the five meetings which took place to June concerned only discussions around the agenda. Eventually, the aims of the dialogue were set as: • • • • • an end to political violence, an invitation to the EU to observe the 2002 elections concrete action to protect the freedom of mass media; independence of the judiciary and respect for its decisions; and an end to illegal occupation of properties. When discussion failed to yield any results, in October 2001, Article 96 consultations were initiated, and in view of the pending elections, a short timeframe of two months set to achieve the aims given as a deadline – without which “appropriate measures” would be implemented as provided by the Article (96(2)).10 The obstruction of the EU Election Observer mission by the expulsion of Mr. Schori led to the Council Decision in February, 2001. EC/148/2002 The measures adopted by the Council Decision were: • The suspension of finance for budgetary support under Zimbabwe's European Development Fund National Indicative Programmes. • Suspension of financial support for all EU funded projects in Zimbabwe except those in direct support of the population, in particular in the social sectors. EU contributions to operations of a humanitarian nature were not affected and regional projects were evaluated on a case by case basis and continued where appropriate. 2002/145/CFSP This Council Decision applied an arms embargo against Zimbabwe. An arms embargo by the UK was already in place, from May 2000, on account of Zimbabwe’s entry into the DRC war. The war had also made the UK uncomfortable about the presence of the British Military Advisory Training Team (BMATT), in the country since independence in 1980, which then withdrew from Zimbabwe six weeks after the 8 Preamble to the Agreement. Article 1 of the Agreement. 10 For details on the Article 96 process in relation to Zimbabwe see Liisa Laakso, University of Jyväskylä, The Difficult Political Dimension of the Cotonou Agreement, paper presented at the 6th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, 12 -15 September 2007, Turin. 9 3