By Daniel Itai, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – The second session of the Zimbabwe and European Union (EU) formal dialogue went underway yesterday where various issues were discussed that are meant to bring political and socioeconomic recovery to the southern African country.
The meeting provided for the continuation of a wide ranging engagement on priorities shared objectives and areas for collaboration including, trade and investment, human rights, democratisation, rule of law and good governance, development cooperation, humanitarian impact and climate change as well as global and regional matters.
The formal Political Dialogue which is now an integral part of relations between the EU and Zimbabwe was conducted in an open, cordial and constructive atmosphere.
The meeting welcomed the agreement by the EU and the four Eastern and Southern African States which include Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles to launch negotiations to deepen the scope of the interim Economic Partnership Agreement beyond trade in goods towards a more comprehensive partnership.
After the meeting the EU issued out a statement saying, “today’s meeting welcomed the recent developments between EU and Zimbabwe such as the, additional US$11 million in humanitarian aid to combat food security announced in August and the additional US$60 million and development aid to Zimbabwe in close partnership with the UN systems and NGOs to support the health sector and boost resilience in agriculture announced in October.”
However, today Timo Olkkonen Head of Delegation of the European Union to Zimbabwe warned against the misappropriation of funds, “it goes without saying that any politicization of humanitarian aid would be incredibly bad news for efforts to mobilize international relief, a point EU made also in our dialogue yesterday,” said Olkkonen.
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