EAC monetary team set for European Union tour

A 20-member delegation from the East African Community will Friday 13th January 2012 depart for Brussels, Luxembourg, Frankfurt and Berlin on a 12-day study tour of the European Union (EU).

Member countries of the East African Community

 

The study is aimed at enhancing the region’s understanding of the EU’s economic and monetary union, including the relevant institutions necessary for a successful monetary union, according to a press release from the EAC secretariat.

The group, comprised of three members/chief negotiators of the High Level Task Force (HLTF) negotiating the EAC Monetary Union Protocol from each Partner State and five officials from the EAC Secretariat led by the Deputy Secretary General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure, Dr. Enos Bukuku.

 

The team will share experiences and interact with officials from EU and EU Member States’ institutions who have an active role in the EU’s economic and monetary union affairs. The study tour comes at a time when the EAC Monetary Union talks are in high gear, with the High Level Task Force having negotiated 49 Articles more than half the number of Articles in the draft Monetary Union Protocol.

Some of the negotiated Articles include: the scope of the Monetary Union; macroeconomic policy framework; monetary policy framework, exchange rate policy and exchange rate mechanism; and instruments of monetary control.

Also negotiated are Articles on harmonization and coordination of fiscal policies; taxation and customs; national Budget formulation processes; domestic and external debt management frameworks; joint financing of projects; and macroeconomic convergence.

The negotiating team has also discussed provisions on coordination of monetary policy and fiscal policies; restrictions on Central Bank lending to public entities; restrictions on privileged access to financial institutions; conditions for bail-outs; conduct of foreign exchange transactions by Partner States; management of foreign exchange reserves; and determination of conversion rates, among others.

The next round of negotiations is scheduled to be held in Arusha, Tanzania in February 2012 and the EAC Summit of Heads of State has set a 2012 deadline for the conclusion of the Monetary Union Protocol.