JERUSALEM, September 15, 2009 (WAFA)- Tomorrow the European Union will make its tenth monthly contribution to the Palestinian Authority's payment of its civil service salaries and pensions, both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

At the request of the Palestinian Authority, this contribution is more than two weeks early, to allow Palestinian civil servants and pensioners to retrieve their money ahead of the feast Eid Al-Fitr that marks the end of Ramadan.

The EU's contribution of just over NIS 70 million (€12.89 million) will be delivered through the EU's PEGASE[1] mechanism and will benefit almost 79,000 civil servants and pensioners, thus helping to ensure the basic delivery of public services by the Palestinian Authority.

On September 12, the EU similarly made an early contribution to the Ministry of Social Affairs' social assistance programme, which provides a basic safety net to more than 50,500 needy families throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Hundreds of people turned up to collect their allowances at specially designated branches of the Bank of Palestine and Cairo Amman Bank, which opened exceptionally on Saturday to allow as many families as possible to receive their allowance before the Eid celebrations.

The EU's assistance to the PA is geared towards building the future institutions of the Palestinian state. Since the beginning of 2009, the PEGASE mechanism has been used by the European Union (Commission and European member states) to deliver €268 million of direct financial support to the Palestinian Authority.