Eritrea-EU relations have improved but challenges remain
ASMARA, Oct 25 (AFP) — Relations between Eritrea and the European Union have improved substantially since 2003, although some challenges remain, the new EU delegation head in the Horn of Africa country, Geert Heikens, said Monday.
Heikens, who arrived in Asmara a month ago, said he was “very enthusiastic about the prospects for cooperation between the EU and Eritrea.”
The EU is one of Eritrea’s most important development partners.
Four years ago, Brussels froze new aid flows after Asmara jailed 11 members of the ruling party when they made a public appeal for democratic reforms.
When Italy’s ambassador questioned the imprisonments, he was expelled from Eritrea.
The 11 are still detained, according to Eritrean authorities.
On human rights, Heikens said: “We have an ongoing political dialogue with Eritrea. We talk frankly of these issues, but problems remain. We are asking the Eritrean government for access to the 11 party members in prison and to religious prisoners.”
Only four groups — Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims and Eritrea’s Evangelical Church — can practise freely their religion, a US State Department report said.
A May 2002 Eritrean government decree ordered all other groups to register with the authorities and cease their activities until they receive authorisation.
Heikens observed that another concern is Eritrea’s strained relations with Ethiopia, which “creates a political risk.”
Between May 1998 and May 2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war, then signed a peace accord late in 2000, with the EU as one of the witnesses.
The accord called for a “final and binding” demarcation of the neighbours’ contested border, but in September 2003 Ethiopia rejected the ruling of a specially established boundary commission.
Reaffirming the EU’s position on demarcation, Heikens said: “We are clearly committed to that decision” and warned that the longer the peace process remained stalled, the greater the risk of the international community losing interest.
“More involvement of the African Union (AU) would be welcome,” he said.
Development projects also had their problems, explained Heikens.
“For example, we have a project to build a road, but the question is: will we get enough contractor biddings? The risk is that the project is too small for big international contractors and too big for local contractors. It is a technical problem,” he said.
“More clearness of (Eritrea’s) economic policy would be welcome,” he added.
Heikens also cited several projects in Eritrea financed by the European Development Fund (EDF) worth 156 million euros for the 2002-2007 period.
One of them is the demobilisation of soldiers, which started after the 1998-2000 war and in which EU has already committed 27 million euros and is expected to give another 20 million euros for the second phase.
“We’d like the process to be speeded up,” Heikens observed.