Act regarding who makes the ultimate decision on the request for Admission of an African State to be a member of the Union. Is it the AU commission? Is it each Member State individually for a totality of 28 such decisions representing a simple majority of current membership as indicated in Article 29(2); or is it the Assembly? These questions must be answered in a legally consistent manner. 12. From all indications, Article 29(2) does not take into account the provisions of Article 9(c). By the provision of the latter (Article 9(c)) on the powers and functions of the Assembly, one of the powers and functions of the Assembly is to “consider requests for membership of the Union”. What does this mean? Who makes that request or who would bring that request to the attention of the Assembly? These are questions that must also be resolved. 13. From all legal reasoning, deduction and interpretation relative to the practice of the Union in terms of organic and sovereign decisions, it is clear that the process articulated in Article 29(2) misses what should be the final and ultimate step clearly envisaged in Article 9(c) – the exclusive preserve of the Assembly to ‘consider requests for membership of the Union”. 14. As the Legal Counsel, after the review of the provisions of the Constitutive Act on admission to membership of the Union as well as the decision making powers of the Assembly relative to Member States and other Organs of the Union, I am of the considered opinion that reading the process articulated in Article 29(2) whereby the Chairperson of the Commission communicates decisions of a simple majority (28) of Member States to the state requesting membership, as the decision of the Union on admission of membership to the Union, is not legally correct and complete. 15. While the Chairperson of the AUC is the Legal Representative of the Union as recognized in Article 7(b) of the Statute of the AU Commission, the exclusive powers and functions that are reserved for the Assembly in the Constitutive Act can only be exercised by that body unless such powers are clearly delegated to the Chairperson. The power and function of deciding on request for membership of the Union has neither been delegated to the Chairperson of the AU nor to any other entity. 16. Because Article 9(c) exclusively reserves the power to “consider requests for membership of the Union” to the Assembly, Page | 3