BUJUMBURA November 9th (ABP) – The Prime Minister of the Republic of Burundi, Mr. Gervais Ndirakobuca, received Monday, November 7, 2022, at the presidential palace Ntare Rushatsi, the Ambassador of the European Union (EU) in Burundi, Claude Bochu, who came to congratulate him on his elevation to the Prime Minister’s office and to discuss with him the elements of deepening the EU-Burundi relationship, a check on the site by ABP has revealed. On the sidelines of the hearing, the EU ambassador to Burundi told the press that after having reviewed these elements of deepening the relationship between the EU and Burundi, he expressed to the first Minister a certain number of expectations so that the EU’s efforts in Burundi in terms of cooperation and support for the Burundian authorities will be facilitated by the concretization of the reforms which have been announced by the Burundian government in terms of the State of law, the improvement of the business climate, the protection of human rights and governance in general.
Ambassador Bochu reported that his expectations and the opinions of the Prime Minister converged to such an extent that they agreed on a number of additional modalities in deepening the political dialogue between the EU and Burundi by progressing more towards sectoral dialogues where the government of Burundi has high priorities. He recalled that this political dialogue was relaunched in 2021 just after the establishment of the new presidential teams resulting from the 2020 elections. This dialogue is going very well with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, M Albert Shingiro, he remarked. Finally, he stressed that the EU in Burundi also has the ambition to contribute in the areas of justice, energy, agriculture and the environment. It should be noted that after receiving the EU Ambassador to Burundi, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Burundi continued to receive in audience other authorities, both national and international, including the former President of the Republic of Burundi, Mr. Sylvestre Ntibantunganya and the Apostolic Nuncio in Burundi, Mr. Dieudonné Datonou.