PAP President Chief Charumbira hints on New Dates for Plenary Session

New Plenary Dates Set: 21 July – 1 August 2025 According to the Pan African Parliament President Chief Fortune Zephaniah Charumbira the PAP Bureau met on Monday, 16 June 2025, and agreed on dates for the three outstanding statutory meetings of the year, including the First Ordinary Session, the second Committee Sittings, and the Second Ordinary Session. Letters are being dispatched to National Parliaments confirming that the first Plenary Session of 2025 will be held from 21 July to 1 August, excluding the customary Pre-Session Meetings. Additional details regarding those meetings will be contained in the official correspondence to national legislatures.

Why the Delay? Budgetary Constraints and AUC Authorization The President outlined two principal reasons for the delay in announcing the dates. Firstly, he revealed that the budget initially allocated for the Plenary Session—US$450,000—was grossly inadequate, falling far below the historical PAP sessional budget of US$1.3 million.

The allocation was a carryover from the pandemic-era practice of convening virtual sessions and had not been updated to reflect PAP’s full return to in-person proceedings in 2022. Secondly, given the insufficient budget, the Bureau wrote to the African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson seeking express authorization to consolidate the total 2025 allocation of US$900,000 into one fully funded session, pending a supplementary allocation for the second session. The President emphasized that they could not proceed with planning in the absence of this approval, as doing so without formal authorization would risk audit flags for budgetary over-expenditure.