TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari is billed to address the European Parliament in Strasbourg on February 3, Michel Arrion, head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Nigeria, has revealed.

Arrion, who disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday at a news conference, said the president’s visit to the parliament was at the invitation of the EU.

He explained that Buhari would deliver his speech to the over 750-member parliament from the 28 EU member countries.

According to him, Buhari will afterwards, have personal sessions with the president of the European Commission.

He said the visit would centre on Buhari’s agenda of security, anti-corruption and economy development, among others.

On security, he said the EU commended the Nigerian leader’s visit to neighbouring countries on regional collaboration against Boko Haram insurgency.

Arrion said the meeting would also discuss how the EU could cooperate with Nigeria to fight corruption and return stolen funds to Nigeria.

He said the common agenda on migration and mobility signed between Nigeria and the EU on March 12, would be fine-tuned during Buhari’s visit, adding that the EU would further put the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), with Nigeria on the front burner during the visit.

The EU envoy declared that the signing of EPA would not be an invasion of the European products into the Nigerian markets.

He said EU had signed the EPA agreement with ECOWAS while most African countries had ratified it but wondered why Nigeria had not.