CEMAC Parliament
Description
According to the articles 2 and 4 of the CEMAC treaty, a common Parliament is to be established in the Equatorial Guinean capital of Malabo. A separate convention has been signed by the members in January 2004 and includes specific provisions on organisational aspects.
According to article 6 of this convention, the Parliament shall be composed of 10 deputies per member country, making a total of 60 Parliamentarians. These deputies are to be elected for a legislation period of five years in universal direct elections. Thus, CEMAC will be among the rare regional communities in Africa with regional Parliamentarians directly elected by the population instead of being nominated by and from the ranks of national Parliamentarians as it is the case in most other African regions. The Parliament is supposed to hold two ordinary sessions a year and may additionally meet in extraordinary sessions, if required. It is headed by a Bureau and a President elected by the Parliamentarians for one year.
Powers and competences
The convention specifies three different functions of the CEMAC Parliament.
First, the Parliament is intended to have a representative role. Its members are considered as deputies of the entire CEMAC population.
Second, article 5 of the convention attributes functions as oversight and control organ to the Parliament. The CEMAC Parliamentarians are given the right to oversee the activities of the executive power through oral or written questioning or auditing. Upon request by two-thirds of the deputies, they will also have the possibility to temporarily set up a special committee of inquiry for the investigation of a specific issue. After completed mission and the production of a report, the special committee shall be dissolved.
And third, the Parliament will have advisory functions combined with a very limited legislative role. It may adopt directives, can be consulted on issues of regional interest and provide recommendations by itself if needed. Its advice will be obligatory in a number of issues, such as questions related to the promotion of free mobility and communication, to social integration and sectoral policies, such as health, research and education, the environment and agriculture. The preamble of the convention defines the Parliament as main instrument and promoter of fundamental rights and freedoms on the communitarian level. As a result, deputies will also be entitled to provide advice in all matters related to Human Rights and basic liberties. Finally, the Assembly will also have the right to express its point of view in case CEMAC’s treaty should be revised.
The transitional period
At present, the Parliamentary Assembly of CEMAC is not operational. Even if the decision to create this institution has been taken over ten years ago, the effective establishment is still in a preparatory phase.
To cover the transition period until the official inauguration of the Parliament, CEMAC members have set up a preparatory Inter-parliamentary Commission (CIP-CEMAC) in the year 2000. This decision has been taken in line with article 44 of the additional protocol on the institutional and juridical system. The Commission is composed of five members from each of the six CEMAC Member States. Its main function is to guide the implementation process. It is therefore supposed to build the needed human and material capacities and to prepare basic documents that regulate the parliamentary activities. Further activities include informing and sensitizing the population about the creation of the CEMAC Parliament. The members of the CIP-CEMAC may already fulfil some of the functions assigned to the Parliament, such as provision of advice on specific regional issues. Additional duties and rights have been defined in the 2000 adopted founding document of the CIP-CEMAC and shall in principle remain valid once the Parliament will assume its functions. They include the yearly examination of the annual report established by CEMAC’s Court of Justice and the national Courts of Audit on the control over the execution of the budget as well as of the report produced by the CEMAC Commission on the Community’s activities and evolution.