Negotiations paving way for DR Congo’s admission into the East African Community (EAC) are due to start at end of this week, The New Times has learnt. This is after regional leaders last month directed that the negotiations be undertaken with speed and efficiency. A source at the EAC Secretariat has told The New Times that the negotiations will begin on Saturday, January 15. Currently, the source said, preparatory meetings are going one virtually between the Secretariat and DR Congo. The EAC Summit last year on December 22 asked the ministers to expeditiously undertake negotiations with the DR Congo in accordance with the bloc’s procedures for admission of new members. The procedure for admission of the DR Congo entails four stages: a verification exercise; negotiations with the country on its admission to the EAC directed by Summit; eventual admission; and the final deposition of the instrument of acceptance of the terms of admission by the country within six months of its admission to the Community. Mid last year, a verification team was deployed in the country and it submitted its report to the Council of Ministers last December. What follows now includes: negotiations at senior, PS and ministerial levels between January and February. The next step will be the consideration of the negotiations report by the extraordinary Council of Ministers, by March. If all goes according to plan, next will be the consideration of the recommendations of Council and decision on admission of DR Congo into the EAC by the Extra Ordinary Summit, by April 11, 2022. As per the roadmap, so far, the EAC has undertaken seven out of the 10 agreed steps towards the admission of the DR Congo into the bloc “and now we have made progress.” The negotiation process The role of the negotiations with the DR Congo is to establish its readiness to comply with the set six criteria as stipulated under the EAC Treaty and the bloc’s procedure for admission. The six criteria include: acceptance of the Community as set out in the Treaty; adherence to universally acceptable principles of good governance, democracy, the rule of law, observance of human rights and social justice; potential contribution to the strengthening of integration within the region; geographical proximity to and inter-dependence between the foreign country and partner states; establishment and maintenance of a market driven economy; and social and economic policies being compatible with those of the bloc. The negotiations will also take into account the country profile of the DR Congo and establish, among others, its level of compatibility with the EACs stages of development in trade liberalization and development; co-operation in investment and industrial development; coordination in monetary and financial matters; development of infrastructure and services; development of human resources; and the development of agriculture and natural resources. The process started when Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi on June 8, 2019, wrote to the then EAC Chairperson, President Paul Kagame, expressing his country’s wish to be a member of the regional bloc. By DR Congo joining to become the seventh member of the bloc, it is expected to bolster the bloc’s economic potential through various ways including opening the corridor from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, as well as North to South, hence expanding the economic potential of the region.
