Ways to study the barriers to true freedom of movement of goods and persons within the ECOWAS will be discussed during the citizen Regional Forum scheduled for July 3 to 5, 2014 in Ouagadougou in the presence of more than one hundred key actors from different states of the organization.
Intended to make an exhaustive inventory of difficulties in application of Community legislation on free movement, this three-day meeting will take into account the concerns of non-state actors and will collect proposals for effective implementation of the texts ECOWAS on the issue.
Further contacts, the forum will bring together participants from structures involved in the question, such as customs, immigration and integration, chambers of commerce and industry, private sector, civil society, professional associations regional and regional institutions (ECOWAS, UEMOA, CILSS).
Besides the training of an inventory of difficulties, the meeting will make proposals for immediate solutions and short, medium and long term for the effective implementation of Community legislation. It will also make recommendations for statutory bodies of ECOWAS to implement effective and efficient text.
At the 43th ordinary session of their conference, held in July 2013 in Abuja, the Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS found "results very modest" recorded in terms of market integration and people and were then resolved to ensure the effective application of the protocols on free movement organization.
In this momentum, they entrusted the responsibility of monitoring this important issue President Blaise Compaor� of Burkina Faso and asked the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Kadr� Desire Ouedraogo, to establish a task force on the free movement of goods.
As part of the implementation of the mandate of President Compor�, a high-level delegation of the Commission, headed by the president of the institution, went to Ouagadougou where she had a working session with a delegation led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Burkina Faso on actions.
Following its deliberations, the meeting adopted a roadmap for the implementation of the mandate of the President of Burkina Faso including, in particular, the organization of a regional forum citizen to take into account the concerns of non-state actors and gather proposals for a proper implementation of Community legislation.
