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European Commission lashes out at Ebrahim Patel
November 26, 2009
By Roy Cokayne
The head of the European Commission delegation in Pretoria on Thursday lashed out at comments by Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel that Africa had not benefited from its links with rich nations of the West.
Speaking at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development transport summit, Lodewijk Briet issued a formal invitation to Patel to accompany him on a tour of South Africa so he could show him how the country was benefiting from this relationship.
Briet admitted the statement made him angry because so much was being done and Patel should not “start playing the blame game”. He stressed the EU was not imposing itself on Africa.
The statement was attributed to Patel in a report by wire service agency Reuters that was published in Business Report on Wednesday.
Briet added that the EU welcomed the competition, presence and involvement of China in Africa.
He was proud of the fact the EU and South Africa were able to recognise their reciprocal relationship by establishing a strategic partnership, which had resulted in a number of areas of co-operation from trade to space, customs and statistics. Briet said South Africa fell under the EU’s community budget and had a specific allocation of e980 million (R10 billion).
He said major EU programmes in South Africa included e122m for education over the next three year, e100m for water and e100m that was still under discussion for primary health care.
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