EU commends Zim progress

Wallace Ruzvidzo

Herald Reporter

The European Union (EU) has acknowledged Zimbabwe’s significant progress in constitutional reforms, paving the way for strengthened cooperation between Harare and Brussels, representative of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council Mr Radoslaw Sikorski has said.

Since the coming in of the Second Republic, relations between Zimbabwe and the EU have continued to thaw on the back of President Mnangagwa’s engagement and re-engagement drive that has built bridges with formerly hostile nations.

Mr Sikorski, who is also Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, was in the country at the weekend to co-chair the SADC-EU Ministerial Partnership Dialogue in Harare.

His visit was the first by a high-ranking EU official in almost over two decades.

In an interview on Saturday evening, the EU representative said relations were progressing in the right direction.

“You have constitutional progress in the works . . . we are watching it closely and sympathetically,” he said.

In terms of the EU sanctions regime, Mr Sikorski said what was only left was an arms embargo.

The EU late last month removed the Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) from its list of sanctioned entities, as relations between Harare and Brussels improve.

“I am told that the only thing that remains is now an arms embargo, so there are no restrictions, and there is the mechanism . . . the more progress Zimbabwe makes, the faster the remaining restrictions will be removed . . . but I think we have progressed in the right direction,” he said.

EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Jobst von Kirchmann weighed in on the sanctions matter, saying there was hope of lifting the remaining arms embargo in the foreseeable future.

“As the minister said very clearly, there are no asset freezes. The EU has no restrictive measures left except an arms embargo, and I think collectively, we hope that with the Government, we will be able in the foreseeable future to also get rid of the mechanism which is still there,” said the Ambassador.

On Zimbabwe’s debt overhang, the EU described the country’s present efforts to clear its arrears as positive.

In 2022 Zimbabwe initiated the High Level Structured Dialogue Platform on Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution, which has seen positive outcomes towards the full servicing of the country’s debts.

“I understand that we regard some of this process as positive,” said Mr Sikorski, with Ambassador von Kirchmann interjecting and adding “…And indeed, there have been several positive signs, in particular on land. The historic payment of farmers compensation, I think is something we have applauded publicly as   well.”