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Ethical Foreign Policy
EU Serf reports that London is coming under pressure to agree to EU plans to lift a visa ban on Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe in time for next year's Euro-African summit.
Portugal, of all places, is leading the charge to revise sanctions on the monstrous Mugabe. Portugese Prime Minister Jose Socrates says that all African leaders must attend the summit meeting between EU and African Union governments. The EU's sanctions on Mugabe's regime, he added, will "change in February." Portugal, he says, could use its veto to block renewals of sanctions against Mugabe.
Britain, which thanks to the EU's archaic colonial attitude towards African nations is still supposed to retain some sort of proprietory interest in Zimbabwe, would oppose lifting the visa ban. Allowing Mugabe into Europe would allow the president's wife some more shopping time in Paris (Zimbabwe relies on international aid to feed its people), while Mugabe himself would no doubt relish another opportunity to condemn the UK from the world stage.
The last time an EU-AU meeting was scheduled in Europe in 2003, London and Paris clashed over the travel ban on Mugabe's regime - one of the few solid elements of a largely toothless set of international sanctions against his government. Paris let the president in, naturally.
