In late January, Commissioner Mairead McGuinness travelled to South Africa and Mauritius. The visits represented a chance to discuss financial services policy and strengthen the partnership with both countries.

South Africa

While in South Africa, Commissioner McGuinness attended the 15^th South Africa – EU Ministerial Political Dialogue, together with EU High Representative Josep Borrell, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides and Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen, as well as Dr. Naledi Pandor, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation. Discussions covered the geopolitical outlook, energy, financial services, and the climate crisis.

Commissioner McGuinness discussed in particular sustainable finance. Like the EU with its Green Deal, South Africa is committed to net-zero emissions by 2050. In the climate transition there are different starting points, national contexts, and ambitions around the world, and this is also so for sustainable finance. Global standards act as a common baseline and help ensure consistency between different international and regional systems.

The EU and South Africa share similar ambitions for sustainable finance. Furthermore, a comparison by independent experts last November highlighted many similarities between the EU Taxonomy and the South African Taxonomy. During her visit, the Commissioner stressed her willingness to continue to work with South Africa in this area and extended an invitation to the country to become a member of the International Platform on Sustainable Finance.

Mauritius

Commissioner McGuinness’ visit to Mauritius was the first visit from an EU Commissioner since 2019. She met with Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth and they discussed the economic and geopolitical outlook and the urgent need to address climate change. They also discussed their shared ambition to tackle money laundering and terrorism financing, which undermine trust in the financial system.

Mauritius has made a big effort in a short period of time to comply with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. Thanks to this, the country has been removed from the list of high-risk jurisdictions kept by both the FATF and the EU.

To strengthen the importance of combating money laundering by the various jurisdictions in the region, Commissioner McGuinness took part in a workshop organised by the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS).

Mauritius is a good example of how action can be taken to tackle systemic failings, and how the EU is able to support countries that want to make progress.