EU to release $126 million to Tanzania amid improving relations

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan arrived at the European Union Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where she met with the council's President Charles Michel. PHOTO | STATE HOUSE

By Peter Elias

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Dar es Salaam. Tanzania and the European Union (EU) have amicably resolved

their differences and the latter would soon disburse €111.5 million ($126 million) in development financing for the country, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has said.

Speaking yesterday during an interview on Deutsche Welle (DW) on Brussels, Belgium, President Hassan said the diplomatic relations between Tanzania and the EU date back to 1970s. She said the relations are now cordial.

“It is true that our relations face some challenges during the past three or four years, but we have sat down and ironed out the differences. They [the relations] are now back to the same as they were before,” said President Hassan.

She said with the relations back to normal, the EU has agreed to release €111.5 million in development funds that had been withheld during the period that the two parties had differed.

“During that period, the EU reached a point of suspending funds for development projects which Tanzania had requested. Until the time that they withheld their support to us, we were implementing our Second Five Year Development Plan. We had already received part of what we had requested from them but a total of €111.5 million was withheld…,” she said.

She said apart from promising to release the funds, the two parties have also signed new project financing agreements.

She said the EU was partly unhappy with Tanzania’s approach in a several areas, including in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) and the overall conduct of politics in the country at that time.

“We had some differences in opinions. We were also looking at the EPAs and also some differences in ideology. Maybe, the EU had made a comment that we were not happy with but finally, we have ironed out and everything is back to normal,” she said.

In 2018, the 27-member economic bloc placed Tanzanian development landscape on high-concern state and said it would review its financial support to Tanzania. The announcement triggered a ripple-effect after World Bank withdrew $300 million loan and then—Denmark followed by withdrawing $10 million aid.

In its November 2018 statement, the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the member states were concerned about recent political developments in Tanzania, citing restrictions on the media and political parties, as well as threats against lesbians, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals.

“Over the past years, the European Union and its member states have noticed a shrinking of public space in Tanzania through the tightening of restrictions on the activities of civil society organisations, the media and many political parties,” the EU said.

In October 2018, the-then Regional Commissioner for Dar es Salaam, Paul Makonda, called upon the public to report suspected gay men to the police and said he would establish a surveillance squad to identify homosexuals.

But the government said at the time that Makonda’s comments did not reflect official policy, which it said would “continue to respect and uphold all human rights as provided for in the country’s constitution”