EU Hails Ghana And Urges Spread The 'Ballot Box'

President Mills exchanging greetings with Mr Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Union Council.

The President of the European Union Council, Mr Herman Van Rompuy, has underscored the need for Ghana to influence countries in the West African sub-region to accept democracy as the best option for economic and social development.

Mr Rompuy, who described Ghana as the bastion of democracy in the sub-region, said the country was obliged to encourage other countries in the region to always use the ballot box to elect and change their leaders.

Mr Rompuy was interacting with President John Evans Atta Mills on the fringes of the Third European Commission-African Union Summit in Tripoli, Libya, yesterday.

He said the European Commission (EU) had, over the past 18 years, been following the achievements Ghana had chalked up in democracy and the rule of law which had caused the commission to impress on the government to do more to institutionalise democratic processes in the sub-region.

Mr Rompuy said the recognition the EU had extended to Ghana for its efforts at practising a refined and acceptable form of democracy should be reciprocated by the willingness of the government to engage with other governments in the sub-region and guide them on the path to establishing democratic institutions of governance.

He said the EU was prepared to offer Ghana every form of assistance to enable it to actualise the onerous assignment of safeguarding democracy in the West African sub-region.

Mr Rompuy also praised the government for the interventions it had instituted since it assumed political power to shore up the economy in order to improve the well-being of the people.

He said the EU would continue to invest in the infrastructural development of the country to increase the government's drive to attract investment, offer employment opportunities and provide more amenities for the people.

President Mills said the country would always propagate the need for countries on the continent to accept constitutional change of government as the norm for democratic change.

He said the time for unconstitutional change in governments in the sub-region and the rest of Africa was gone forever and would remain a thing of the past.

President Mills said power resided in the will of the people, for which they should be allowed to elect people whom they deemed capable of managing their economies and ensuring an improvement in their living conditions.

In another development, the President of the Czech Republic, Mr Vaclav Klaus, is to pay an official visit to Ghana early next year to explore further investment opportunities in the country.

The Czech President expressed the desire when he held bilateral talks with President Mills on the wings of the Third European Commission-African Union Summit in Tripoli, Libya.

President Klaus said he had decided to visit Ghana because of its economic opportunities and outstanding democratic credentials.

The meeting centred on improving trade relations between the two countries following the recent visit by Vice-President John Mahama to the Czech Republic.

President Mills said Ghana considered the Czech Republic as a veritable economic partner with which it was prepared to do business for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

He recalled the role the Czech government played in the establishment of the Komenda and Asutsuare sugar factories in Ghana and commended it for playing a role in laying a solid economic foundation which facilitated Ghana’s social progress.

President Mills said Ghana had a viable investment code which ensured that foreign investors were guaranteed maximum returns on their investment.

He invited investors from the Czech Republic to consider investing in the sugar factory and waste management areas, in addition to infrastructure, which he described as something crucial to the government's agenda to transform the economic fortunes of the country.