* The currency will become "Eco" in 2020 in West Africa

* The end of the "operations account" of the French Treasury

* The "Eco" will remain pegged to the euro

* Macron denounces colonization again, "a fault" (Updated with details on the agreement, Macron and Ouattara statements)

by Ange Aboa and Clotaire Achi

ABIDJAN, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The West African Economic Union (UEMOA) and France on Saturday signed a "historic" agreement for a major reform of the CFA franc, considered one of the last survivals of "Françafrique". ", which will become the "Eco" in 2020 but will remain pegged to the euro.

Created in 1945, the CFA franc (acronym then for "French Colonies of Africa") is currently common to 14 African countries, or some 150 million inhabitants for a gross domestic product (GDP) of approximately 235 billion dollars.

Under the terms of the agreement announced by Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara and Emmanuel Macron, on the second day of the French President's visit to Côte d'Ivoire, the obligation for the Central Bank of East Africa is terminated. Ouest to place 50% of its foreign exchange reserves in the operations account managed by the French Treasury.

This account, "a concern, a subject of tension", will be deleted, confirmed Emmanuel Macron.

France, moreover, will no longer sit in the decision-making and management bodies of UEMOA, which includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

"The question of the CFA franc crystallizes many debates and many criticisms on the supposed role of France in Africa. It is the African youth who raise it", noted Emmanuel Macron during a press conference alongside his Ivorian counterpart.

THE "TINNERS" OF COLONIALISM

The CFA franc is increasingly denounced by African public opinion as a "post-colonial" currency. "So let's break the moorings, let's have the courage to move forward, to look and to build an uninhibited partnership together. France has nothing to hide, has no privileges to have", underlined the French president.

Alassane Ouattara, current president of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of UEMOA, justified this "historic" agreement by the need to "undertake even more ambitious reforms in order to consolidate our growth dynamics, preserve the purchasing power of our populations.

The eight countries of the monetary union, however, wanted to maintain the fixed parity of the currency with the euro and the guarantee of convertibility by France "in order to attract private investment, create jobs and continue the development of our country".

Emmanuel Macron hailed "a new page in our common history which puts an end to the tinsel of the past, to misunderstandings, sometimes to devices which no longer made much sense."

The French president, who described colonization as a "crime against humanity" during a campaign trip to Algiers in February 2017, regretted that France was still burdened with "a look of hegemony and tinsel of 'a colonialism which was a profound error, a fault of the Republic'. (Sophie Louet in Paris with Alessandra Prentice)