CONVINCED that the promotion of harmonious economic development of our
States calls for effective economic co-operation and integration largely through a
determined and concerted policy of self-reliance;
BEARING IN MIND the African Charter on Human and People's Rights and the
Declaration of Political Principles of the Economic Community of West African States
adopted in Abuja by the Fourteenth Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of
State and Government on 6 July, 1991;
CONVINCED that the integration of the Member States into a viable regional
Community may demand the partial and gradual pooling of national sovereignties to
the Community within the context of a collective political will;
ACCEPTING the need to establish Community Institutions vested with relevant and
adequate powers;
NOTING that the present bilateral and multilateral forms of economic co-operation
within the region open up perspectives for more extensive co-operation;
ACCEPTING the need to face together the political, economic and socio-cultural
challenges of the present and the future, and to pool together the resources of our
peoples while respecting our diversities for the most rapid and optimum expansion
of the region's productive capacity;
BEARING IN MIND ALSO the Lagos Plan of Action and the Final Act of Lagos of April
1980 stipulating the establishment, by the year 2000, of an African Economic
Community based on existing and future regional economic communities;
MINDFUL OF the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community signed in
Abuja on 3 June, 1991;
AFFIRMING that our final goal is the accelerated and sustained economic
development of Member States, culminating in the economic union of West Africa;
BEARING IN MIND our Decision AlDEC. 10/5/90 of 30 May, 1990 relating to the
establishment of a Committee of Eminent Persons to submit proposals for the
review of the Treaty;
AWARE that the review of the Treaty arises, inter alia, from the need for the
Community to adapt to the changes on the international scene in order to derive
greater benefits from those changes;
CONSIDERING ALSO the need to modify the Community's strategies in order to
accelerate the economic integration process in the region;
ACCEPTING the need to share the benefits of economic co-operation and
integration among Member States in a just and equitable manner;
HAVE DECIDED to revise the Treaty of 28 May, 1975 establishing the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and have accordingly agreed as
follows: