Opening statement of the Ambassador for the EU-Mauritius 9th Political Dialogue

Honourable Minister

Representatives from Ministries

Dear Colleagues Ambassadors and Representatives from the EU Member States,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Bonjour.

Mo bien content azordi pou sa Dialogue Politique qui nous pé organiser avec Gouvernement Moris et mo remercier zotte tou pou zotte présence.

I wish to thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade and his whole team for the extensive preparatory work ahead of this important moment of our cooperation.

I am here today with the Ambassadors and representatives from 8 EU Member States, namely: Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Austria and Finland.

Today’s dialogue is the opportunity to reaffirm the strategic partnership between the European Union and the Republic of Mauritius, a partnership that remains solid despite challenges.  I would like to highlight that this year has been marked by four major success stories in our partnership:

• The first success story I would like to highlight is the response to the coronavirus pandemic and other health challenges :

The coronavirus pandemic has put the whole world in uncharted territory. Over more than two years, we have all been faced with a sanitary, economic and social crisis.

Thanks to solidarity and international cooperation, we have managed to respond to this major crisis with the production and distribution of safe vaccines and the reinforcement of national health systems.

In Mauritius, following the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in the year 2020, we responded very quickly by re-orienting our bilateral support programme to support the Government strengthen the public health systems. This was done through a health sector budget support programme. 

The key performance indicators we had jointly agreed have been fully achieved:

• COVID testing capacity have been increased,
• ICU beds have been delivered,
• training of health personnel on infection control as well as the elaboration and dissemination of national guidelines for major communicable diseases have been successfully implemented.

The national guidelines, which are being used on a daily basis, are a key tool for health professionals in their response to major pandemics.   

These results could be achieved thanks to the reactivity and high responsiveness of the Mauritian authorities to the COVID pandemic.

However, we have to continue to remain vigilant as new crises may occur in the future - we already have potential new threats like monkeypox and other variants of Covid 19. Therefore, we need to continue to build resilience of public health systems and the EU is ready to continue to work with you in this area.

• The second success story I would like to highlight is anti-money laundering :

In February this year, the EU removed Mauritius from the list of countries presenting strategic deficiencies in their regimes on anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing (‘AML/CFT’), in which Mauritius featured since October 2020.

This decision was made when the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decided to remove Mauritius from its monitoring process.

This achievement is the result of the consistent efforts made by the Mauritian authorities with the support of the EU delegation and our technical assistance team.

Allow me to remind all of us that the inclusion of Mauritius on the EU list created a challenging situation, when the country was facing the full impact of the COVID.

I know it has put the country’s financial sector under stress and created tensions and discontent. Nonetheless, I am glad that at no point in time was there any disruption in the dialogue between the EU and Mauritius.

My services met with Minister Seeruttun regularly to advance solutions to meet all the requirements set in the FATF action plan. And this has worked. The FATF’s action plan has been implemented 6 months ahead of schedule!  

For us, addressing money laundering and the financing of terrorism remains a priority both internally and externally. At the EU level, we are committed to strengthening the Union’s AML/CFT framework and we are working setting up an EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority. We are ready to continue to work with you in this area that is important for your country’s financial sector as well as for the international financial sector.

• The third success story is about successfully promoting Mauritius as a sustainable destination:

At global level, tourism is among the economic sectors hardest hit by COVID-19 thereby the need for recovery. Even if the pandemic is not over yet, everyone is exploring ways to ‘build back better’.

One thing is certain: the recovery has to be green or at least turquoise as we are surrounded by beautiful lagoons!  

Tourism is a key sector for Mauritius as a provider of direct and indirect employment and business opportunities. It is an industry with a high multiplier effect. This is why the Sustainable Island Mauritius is a game changer for the local tourism industry.

Over 4 years, the project has managed to raise awareness on sustainable tourism across the whole value chain and promote the development of new products and new services that are more sustainable and offer a better experience to tourists as well as enhanced opportunities for local operators.

The silver award in the category ‘Destinations Building Back Better Post-Covid’ that Mauritius has received, through the Sustainable Island Mauritius, during the WTM Africa Responsible Tourism Awards, is the result of the sustained efforts of the Tourism Authority team with support of the Collaborating Centre for Sustainable Consumption based in Germany.

Also, the award that Mauritius received last week ‘Tourism NDC Initiative of The Year, African NDC Investment Awards 2022’ in the context of the COP27 is further international recognition of the consistent efforts of the authorities in promoting sustainable tourism in Mauritius. This is highly commendable!

As the EU still represents the main source of tourists in Mauritius who travel almost 12,000 kms to discover the beauty of the island, it is logical to accompany the move to sustainable tourism in Mauritius.

We are committed, with our Member States, to continue investing in greening the economy and protecting the natural capital and biodiversity as part of our partnership with Mauritius.

• The fourth and last success story I would like to highlight is about promoting cybersecurity:

Mauritius has been designated as a regional cyber resilience hub under our Cyber4Dev programme. This is a major achievement and also a major responsibility.

With this designation, Mauritius has an important role to play in providing guidance to its regional and international partners, not only on technical cybersecurity issues, but also on promoting a free and safe internet respecting our core democratic values and personal data.

Cybersecurity and the promotion of a safer digital space is an area where we are stepping up our action in the EU and in the world. We have recently adopted a comprehensive digital package enabling the protection of users' rights online.

More and more of our key daily activities are taking place online – work, learning, shopping can now be done  through the many digital tools that connect us. But we all know that this does not go without any risk.

Our world is facing an increasing number of cyberattacks and disinformation attacks that are posing a risk to the functioning of our democratic societies.

Cyberattacks can also threaten the security of critical infrastructure and critical services such as hospitals, airports, energy grids and railways.

It is increasingly important to build the response to such threats and also to sensitise citizens, including the young people  and children, on how to stay safe online and become familiar with the latest cybersecurity threats.

We are already implementing, in co-operation with the Ministry of Information, Communications and Innovation and the Computer Emergency Response Team of Mauritius (CERT-MU), a number of wide ranging activities to enable the development of cyber awareness.

I have listened to the Prime Minister’s address at the UN General Assembly in September, as he underscored that the pandemic had brought to light the role of ICT as a crucial enabler of economic and social development. And I am happy to confirm that the EU is committed to continue working with Mauritius to promote a safer and more open digital space.

Honourable Ministers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are unfortunately still facing multiple crises.

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is impacting everyone directly or indirectly. Not only has it led more than 7 million of Ukrainian citizens to flee the combat zone and forced many to seek refuge in neighbouring countries to save their lives and escape war crimes in occupied territories. But this war of aggression is having serious global repercussions on basic needs like food and energy.

Closer to us in Africa, several countries are facing conflicts that are taking a heavy toll on civilians from Sahel to the Horn of Africa down to Central and Eastern Africa.

Moreover, recent extreme climatic events around the world from scarcity of water in Europe with multiple fires to heavy flooding in Pakistan again clearly confirm the major threat that climate change and dramatic biodiversity loss pose for our lives.

Today, more than ever, humanity is facing critical challenges. We need more than ever to work together for a stronger multilateralism to reinforce cooperation in building and increasing our resilience to be able to tackle current and future crises to come.

As a key global player, the European Union is committed to multilateralism and international cooperation as none of these issues can be addressed alone.

We will continue to be a reliable partner for Mauritius for peace and security, for sustainable economic development, for promoting human rights for all and for strong and consistent climate action.

While I was in Brussels a few weeks ago, listening to the President of the European Council Charles Michel gave me courage and comfort in my role as an EU Ambassador. He said, I quote:

• “The European Union is a political project oriented towards the outside world, towards our partners. We are a force – and this is the meaning of ‘leadership’ – for the climate. We are a force for peace, security and development. We are a force for economic cooperation. And I think that exercising leadership should be the European Union’s ambition.” Unquote.

I believe that here in Mauritius we have the concrete results of what our fruitful and longstanding partnership can achieve. I have mentioned four success stories but there are many more.  We will have the opportunity to discuss during our dialogue a number of areas where we already work together.

There are also important sectors/subjects where we can work together with challenging key reforms to be  implemented. 

Our dialogue today will provide us with an opportunity to explore how we can step up our joint action, identify any bottlenecks that we need to address and also to celebrate our many successes.

Long live the partnership and political dialogue between the Republic of Mauritius and the EU.

Thank you for your attention.