Member of the European Commission (EC) Andris Piebalgs, Development Commissioner, received Pravind Jugnauth, vice prime minister and minister for Finance and Economic Development on Monday in Brussels, Belgium for high level discussions. Jugnauth stated that Mauritius enjoys excellent relations with the EC and is committed to further develop and modernise their good relations and cooperation. [...]

Member of the European Commission (EC) Andris Piebalgs, Development Commissioner, received Pravind Jugnauth, vice prime minister and minister for Finance and Economic Development on Monday in Brussels, Belgium for high level discussions.

Jugnauth stated that Mauritius enjoys excellent relations with the EC and is committed to further develop and modernise their good relations and cooperation. Jugnauth said that Mauritius welcomes the publication of the Green Paper on Development Cooperation and Budget Support as they are timely, help modernise development cooperation and make budget support more responsive to the needs of beneficiary states.

Referring to the accompanying measures for sugar protocol countries (AMSP), the minister said, “We are grateful for the EU’s support, following the sharp price cut for sugar exported to EU by Mauritius. However, the accompanying measures were significantly less than if a proportionate rule had been applied on loss in export earnings.

We appreciate the additional resources under AMSP that the EU reallocated last year. We understand that some resources may again become available for reallocation this year.”

Jugnauth said, “We are requesting that if this situation arises, a timely decision is taken to reallocate some of the available resources to Mauritius. This will enable us to ensure that, as last year, we have time to work with the delegation to absorb such resources to improve the speed and impact of our reforms”, he said. He added that the Mauritian government is working with the delegation, private sector, civil society and target population to develop an effective five-year programme.

“The programme aims to bring the target population to the national average for Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) relating to maternal health, child mortality, food security, water and sanitation. To have a meaningful impact within next five years we plan to complement EU support with additional resources from government and private sector,” he stated.

He also expressed his gratitude for the EU budget support.