EU to resume cooperation with Mauritania

The European Union has decided to resume cooperation with Mauritania and is ready to release the aid of millions of dollars, according to a visiting official from the 27-nation bloc.

Stephano Manservisi, the director general in charge of development and relations with Africa-Carribean-Pacific countries, is heading a high-level mission in Nouakchott for the resumption of aid to the northwest African country.

Manservisi told reporters on Sunday that they were scheduled to meet with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, as well as the representatives of the opposition and the civil society. The talks would lay foundations for the resumption of cooperation between Mauritania and the EU.

The cooperation involving 150 million euros (225 million U. S. dollars) was suspended following a military coup d'etat in Mauritania in August 2008. Ould Abdel Aziz was elected president in July to end the coup-triggered political crisis.

A EU delegation paid a visit to Mauritania on Oct. 4-7 to examining the resumption of aid.

Source: Xinhua