Aviation min isters form West and Central Africa have they emphasised the need for the African Union Commission to expedit e the adoption of the revised African Commission on Civil Aviation (AFCAC) Consti t ution.
This, they said, would to enable AFCAC to fulfil its mandate as the Executing Ag ency for the Yamoussoukro Decision as approved by the African Union Summit held i n Accra, Ghana in 2007.
They also urged the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Economic and Monetary Union of Central Africa (CEMAC), the Banjul Acc o rd Group (BAG) and the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) to ado p t and implement the provisions of the Resolution of their meeting within the fra m ework of the organizationsâ™ and institutionsâ™ respective constituent treaties .
Also among the recommendations is the appeal for support towards the creation of air transport regional instruments as well as calls for the liberalization of g r ound handling services in airports and the strengthening of cooperation among ai r lines.
This was contained in a recommendations adopted after their one-0day meeting in Yamoussoukro on Friday to be submitted to the heads of ECOWAS and CEMAC.
The recommendations said as a mark of their commitment to the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision, the Ministers agreed to set up a Ministerial Monitori n g Committee composed of Cote dâ™Ivoire as President, Cameroon and Togo as co-Vic e Presidents with Chad and Ghana as members.
The ministerial committee will be assisted by ECOWAS, CEMAC, BAG, UEMOA, members of the Coordination and Monitoring Committee nominated by the two regions as we l l as donors and development partners.
The Council of Aviation Ministers had, at its fourth meeting in November 2008 in Accra, directed the ECOWAS Commission to conduct a country by country assessmen t of the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision of 1999.
The Decision which seeks to liberalize market access and ensure a fast, reliable and affordable air transportation system in West and Central Africa, also guara n tees a system of regulations and security control of civil aviation, consistent w ith the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards and practices .
The recommendations, based on the assessment report which was validated by civil aviation experts in Banjul, The Gambia from 20th to 22nd October 2009, are expe c ted to boost the new drive towards the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decisi o n, in the spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed also in 1999.
Representation at the Yamoussoukro meeting included the African Union, UEMOA and other regional institutions, airline companies, associations and organizations,
donors and development partners as well as Gabon, Guinea, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe w hich attended as observers.
