EU to provide $200m in budget support

The European Union has pledged to disburse 200 million euros to Mozambique in direct budget support under an agreement signed on 31st January in Addis Ababa.
The agreement was signed by Mozambican Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi and by the European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, after an audience granted to the European official by President Filipe Nyusi, who was attending the African Union heads of state summit.
Speaking immediately after the signing, Baloi said the main areas of cooperation between Mozambique and the EU are support for the state budget, rural development and infrastructures. The meeting between Nyusi and Mimica, he added, also discussed “other strategic matters”.
The European Union “is a major partner”, said Baloi, and the audience was thus an important opportunity for the Commissioner to hear the opinions of the Mozambican President.
For his part, Mimica said the meeting with Nyusi allowed an assessment of political and economic cooperation, and of the partnership between the EU and Mozambique. “We discussed the disbursement of EU support for Mozambique, and signed with the Foreign Minister an agreement worth 200 million euros in direct budget support”.
Speaking of the current political tensions in Mozambique, Mimica said that dialogue should be the first and the last path for overcoming political divergences. (AIM/Maputo)