US embassy cable - 04ABUJA1999

UNCLAS ABUJA 001999 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, ECIN, MARR, ODIP, NI, ECOWAS 
SUBJECT: ECOWAS OR EU-COWAS: ACCREDITATION AND INFLUENCE AT 
THE SUBREGIONAL 
 
REF:  ABUJA 1671 
 
1.  Summary.  The recently concluded ECOWAS donors 
conference highlighted a disparity in influence at the 
Secretariat between accredited observers and non-accredited 
 
SIPDIS 
donors.  The ability of the EU to direct the conference 
agenda and to dominate the attention of ECOWAS was 
remarkable, and there does not seem to be any bloc to 
balance this influence.  End Summary. 
 
2.  The following diplomatic missions are accredited to 
ECOWAS as observers:  Germany, Cuba, Spain, France, Italy, 
Sweden, Russia, Greece, Canada, China, Belgium, Finland, 
Switzerland, South Africa, Ireland, Netherlands, Denmark, 
India, and UNHCR.  The European Commission recommended that 
all member states pursue accreditation, and only the UK and 
Norway have failed to do so. 
 
3.  The European Commission delegation in Abuja has three 
diplomatic officers who work primarily on ECOWAS issues. 
The amount of influence this brings them with the Executive 
Secretariat was obvious during the donors conference.  The 
 
SIPDIS 
published agenda was changed shortly before the conference 
to include a half-day session on the Short-Term Action Plan 
(STAP) based on a request from the EC.  This change 
constituted a full quarter of the agenda, and detracted from 
the time initially allocated to Political Affairs, Defense, 
and Security, which was initially supposed to be the primary 
focus of the conference (reftel).  The Canadian High 
Commissioner commented that there seemed to be no effective 
counterbalance to this European influence.  His deputy made 
a game of counting the number of times someone from the 
Secretariat made a point of thanking the EU. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
CAMPBELL