 | Just in case anyone thought the Euros could grow a spine over anything. |
A new split is developing within the EU over sanctions on the Zimbabwean government, with both France and Portugal considering summit invitations to President Robert Mugabe that would weaken the diplomatic isolation of his regime that Britain is trying to maintain.
| If you had to pick one, it would be the French. |
European officials said there is an agreement in principle to continue five-year-old EU travel sanctions against senior Zimbabwean officials, and a formal decision is due to be announced on February 20. However, loopholes in those sanctions could allow France and Portugal to invite Mr Mugabe or his aides to summits in Europe, undermining British efforts to keep the Zimbabwean leader under pressure for human rights abuses.
A French official said yesterday he could not confirm whether President Jacques Chirac had invited Mr Mugabe to a France-Africa summit in Cannes on February 14. "The invitations are still being sent. The list will be published only later."
| They know that Bob and Grace will drop their Chinese money all over the best stores in Cannes. |
Portugal is also hoping to invite Mr Mugabe to Lisbon for an EU-Africa summit in November.
Both Lisbon and Paris are concerned that if he is excluded, other governments from the region, particularly South Africa, might boycott the meetings. Neither France nor Portugal has so far applied for exemptions to the sanctions regime to issue invitations on the grounds that the meetings they are planning will address human rights issues. But British officials and human rights groups have argued that Zimbabwean participation in such high-profile events would make sanctions all but meaningless.
| Correct. And who cares if the South Africans boycott? |
Any watering down of the sanctions regime would accentuate differences between the EU and the Commonwealth, which indefinitely suspended Zimbabwe's membership in 2003, prompting President Mugabe's complete withdrawal. Donald McKinnon, the Commonwealth secretary-general, told the Guardian yesterday: "If the EU was to change its stance totally, you're virtually accepting the nature of the government in Zimbabwe, which I think would be sad." |