Page 2 We, the Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS): The President of the Republic of BENIN The President of BURKINA FASO The Prime Minister of the Republic of CAPE VERDE The President of the Republic of COTE D'IVOIRE The President of the Republic of The GAMBIA The President of the Republic of GHANA The President of the Republic of GUINEA The President of the Republic of GUINEA BISSAU The President of the Interim Government of National Unity of the Republic of LIBERIA The President of the Republic of MALI The President of the Islamic Republic of MAURITANIA The President of the Republic of NIGER The President of the Federal Republic of NIGERIA The President of the Republic of SENEGAL The Head of State and Chairman of the National Provisional Ruling Council of the Republic of SIERRA LEONE The President of the TOGOLESE Republic Reaffirming the Treaty establishing the Economic Community of West African States signed in Lagos on 28 May 1975 and considering its achievements; Conscious of the over-riding need to encourage, foster and accelerate the economic and social development of our States in order to improve the living standards of our peoples; Convinced that the promotion of harmonious economic development of our States calls for effective economic cooperation 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 cooperation within the region open up perspectives for more extensive cooperation; Accepting the need to face together the political, economic and sociocultural 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;