The European Union is threatening to tighten sanctions against Zimbabwe if the power-sharing agreement concluded between the opposition MDC and the President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF is not implemented. In an official statement to the press on Tuesday in Brussels, the Council of Foreign Ministers, said they planned to take additional measures in the event of “continuous blocking” of the implementation of the agreement. In addition, the Council stressed that it was worried by the degradation of the human rights in Zimbabwe. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki is back in Harare to resolve problems in the implementation of the agreement that have seen the MDC threatening to pull out. The EU last week released a humanitarian aid package of 10 million euros in favour of Zimbabwe. The EU imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe in 2001, following the policy of accelerated land reform applied by the government of Harare, which consisted of the expropriation of white farmers’ lands whose farms have been given to supporters of ZANU-PF. The sanctions were renewed last February for one year by Brussels.
