EU renews sanctions on Zimbabwe for another year
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BRUSSELS — The European Union on Tuesday renewed its sanctions against Zimbabwe for another year, citing a lack of progress in implementing the country's power-sharing agreement.
"In view of the situation in Zimbabwe, in particular the lack of progress in the implementation of the Global Political Agreement signed in September 2008, the restrictive measures... should be extended for a further period of 12 months," the 27 EU nations agreed in a decision published in the bloc's official journal.
President Robert Mugabe and his erstwhile rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formed a unity government nearly a year ago, aiming to end political unrest targeting mainly supporters of the premier's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Last September the EU sent a delegation to Zimbabwe, and found that benchmarks for reforms have not been met.
Hence the decision to maintain the travel bans and assets freezes which were first introduced in 2002 on Mugabe and some 100 of his cohorts.
However the names of some individuals and countries were removed from the list after the investigation downgraded their links with the main players.
Lutz Guellner, spokesman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, stressed that the sanctions remained under review.