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International Partnerships

Mauritania

Mauritania is a West African country which borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west and Western Sahara to the north and northwest. Approximately 90% of its landmass is located within the Sahara Desert.

Our partnership

The EU and Mauritania share an excellent partnership, as evidenced by the quality of the political dialogue and the EU’s significant investment in the country.

In our current ongoing cooperation, we share many common interests, ranging from the accelerated green transition to regional stability in West Africa and in the Sahel, and orderly migration management.

The EU supports Mauritania towards sustainable and inclusive development in line with the ’Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Shared Prosperity‘ - the Mauritania roadmap 2016-2030  and the Global Gateway Strategy.

Under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI-Global Europe) the EU allocated €125 million to the partnership with Mauritania over 2021-24.

The EU-Mauritania Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement – the most important for a partner country – amounts to over €300 million for the period 2022-2026.

Mauritania also benefits from regional EU programmes including €53 million for professional training, food security, energy, security and migration.

8 MARCH 2022
Multiannual Indicative Programme 2021-2027 for Mauritania - annex (French)
English
(1.04 MB - PDF)
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20 OCTOBER 2023
Annual action plan 2023 for Mauritania (French)
French
(2.24 MB - ZIP)
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20 DECEMBER 2021
Annual action plan 2021 for Mauritania (French)
French
(2.08 MB - ZIP)
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19 JUNE 2014
Programming documents 2014-2020 for Mauritania
English
(13.82 MB - ZIP)
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Our flagship initiatives

Blue and Green Economy
  • Team Europe Initiative (TEI) ‘For the Transition to a Green and Blue Economy in Mauritania’ (with France, Germany, and Spain): in line with the national ‘Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Shared Prosperity - SCAPP 2016-2030’ and particularly its pillar ’Promoting strong, sustainable and inclusive growth‘. The programme encourages inclusive and sustainable development and aims to improve employment and decent work. 
    The initiative aims to:
    • promote, through sustainable food systems, high-quality, affordable food for the population
    • support the transition towards affordable access to clean, renewable energy for the majority of the population
    • protect fragile marine ecosystems and improve governance of the ocean and coastline while developing activities for the rational exploitation of fisheries resources and associated industries.

An example is the construction of land and seaport infrastructure and creation of integrated development hubs. Two terrestrial landing facilities in the central and southern areas of the Mauritanian coast (namely at M'Heijratt and PK93 sites) have already been built. To complement this territorial infrastructure, maritime infrastructures will be built thanks to EU support.

  • Hydrogen ecosystem - Team Europe Initiative with France, Germany, Spain and the EIB launched at the occasion of the Global Gateway Forum.
    The four main objectives are:
    • Support the development of infrastructures to produce, transport, and commercialise green energy
    • Foster decent jobs and job creation
    • Provide skilled labour with technical and vocational training in the hydrogen ecosystem and support research and development, iv) Consolidate the legal and fiscal framework, improve the country’s business climate to create a favourable investment environment for the development of hydrogen exploitation and related activities such as green steel.
Human Development

Team Europe Initiative ‘Strengthening human development’: the EU and its Member States in Mauritania (France, Germany and Spain) promote social cohesion and socio-economic development by supporting quality health and education and vocational training services. Emphasis is placed on the socio-professional inclusion of young people, towards equal treatment and access to opportunities and the fight against all forms of discrimination, including those based on gender.

This initiative is in line with the second pillar of the SCAPP ’Development of human capital and access to basic social services’ to support social cohesion, a government priority for this legislature. Furthermore, the initiative will support the introduction of universal health cover by 2030 in line with the National Health Policy.

Connectivity

Submarine cable for Mauritania and data centre in Nouakchott. The EU and the European Investment Bank are working to connect Mauritania with a new submarine cable. This will provide a back-up solution to the current single submarine cable (African Coast to Europe - ACE), as well as additional data capacity to cope with the growing volume of traffic. The cable will also provide resilient international data connectivity and additional capacity for Mauritania's landlocked neighbours.

24 OCTOBER 2023
EU-Mauritania country projects
English
(1.16 MB - PDF)
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