The European Union (EU), through its embassy in Liberia has reiterated its commitment to support the Liberian government in holding of a free, fair, transparent and peaceful election in October.
The EU Head of Delegation, Laurent Delahousse said, “The EU through the Chargé d’Affaires of Ireland expressed its confidence that the elections will be peaceful, free, fair, transparent, inclusive and credible.”
However, he called on all stakeholders to respect one another, to campaign in peace and to respect the results of the elections; something he said would send a louder message to the international community that Liberia is now democratically mature.
Ambassador Delahousse gave the assurance Thursday, June 22, 2023 during the holding of the 11th edition of the EU-Liberia Partnership Dialogue, formerly known as the Political Dialogue at the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Ministerial Complex in Monrovia.
The meeting was jointly chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dee-Maxwell Kemayah and Ambassador Delahousse focusing on selected number of issues of mutual interest including the bilateral EU-Liberia cooperation, the preparation for the October elections, human rights, foreign policy cooperation on regional and multilateral issues as well as business and investment climate.
The 11th Partnership Dialogue which took place in the context of the 50th Anniversary of EU-Liberia relations saw both institutions discussed joint effort to promote peace, the values of Liberia democracy and respect for international rule of law as well as the renewal of their condemnation of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.
However, the EU Head of Delegation commitment comes at the time when Liberians are poised to go to the ballot box to elect a President and several legislators to steer the affairs of the country for the next six years.
Ambassador Delahousse maintained, “We are also confident that the people of Liberia will choose freely their leaders. We hope that those leaders will put the interests of the people before their own and enforce the basic principle of democracy, which is that politics is the noblest occupation when its first goal is to help and serve the people, not to help and serve oneself first.”
Commenting on other issues, Delahousse assured Liberians that the EU and its member States are in total readiness to support the future development strategy of the Government of Liberia that will result from the elections, as being done with the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development.
On the issues of Sexual Gender-Based Violence, he revealed, “We feel that this situation is good in general and we will discuss specific matters such as Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, Female Genital Mutilation or the abolition of the Death Penalty. We will raise the issue of impunity, since recent cases, around drug smuggling or the logging activities of the Renaissance Group, raise questions on the integrity of some aspects of the functioning of the Liberian State and justice system.”
Meanwhile, the EU Ambassador has vowed that the EU will also address two more issues around passports and visas, at the request of the Liberian government, in order to facilitate the access of Liberians and their officials to the European territory.
Foreign Minister Kemeyah thanked the EU Ambassador and team for the continuous support to Liberia as well as the holding of the 11th edition of the Partnership Dialogue, formerly known as the Political Dialogue in Liberia.
Minister Kemeyah noted that the continuous support by the EU to Liberia speaks volume about the strong bilateral relations between entities, and at the same time assured the EU and Liberians that President George M. Weah is committed to the holding of free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections in October.
