RAMALLAH, April 20, 2011 (WAFA) – The European Union granted the Palestinian Authority 21 million Euros as part of a financing agreement to support the PA’s institution building agenda, according to an EU press release.
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and European Union Representative Christian Berger signed the agreement on Tuesday at Fayyad’s Ramallah office. The money will go for infrastructure development work.
Fayyad thanked the EU for what he described as “its generous and important support” for Palestinian state institutions building efforts.
He said the EU is the main financial provider to the PA, whether it was in budget support or in projects, but “what is even more important than that is the political support and role the EU plays in the international arena, particularly through its role in the quartet.”
He said the EU hosted last week a meeting for the ad hoc liaison committee that looks into financial support for the PA, and which Fayyad described as “an important and historic meeting” because it supported Palestinian readiness to function as a state by September.
The EU statement said that its financial support to the PA “is designed both to help sustain the public services that the PA provides to the Palestinian people and to strengthen the institutions of the future Palestinian state.”
The €21million financing package will be utilized towards supporting ongoing work in key sectors such as justice and security, economic and financial management and development of public infrastructure.
More specifically, the funds will be allocated to support justice institutions, such as the High Judicial Council, with upgrading their facilities and building new premises for courts and research centers.
The Palestinian Monetary Authority will be supported with key IT solutions and cutting-edge software technology to modernize its banking operations.
A total of €3.5 million will go towards the completion of a sanitation and waste water system in Rafah and Deir Al Balah in the Gaza Strip.
“With this latest support we hope to boost the progress made in the past year in important sectors such as the rule of law and public infrastructure,' said the EU Representative Christian Berger.
'Tangible progress has been achieved in the economic and public financial management sectors and we aim to take it a step further with today’s agreement,” he said. ”This progress is a clear sign that the Prime Minister's two-year plan is bearing fruits; a plan that the EU is supporting both politically and financially,' he added.
Since 2007 the European Union has provided total assistance to the Palestinian people, including civil society organizations and refugees, averaging to €500 million annually. European funds support major reform and development programs in key ministries, to help prepare the Palestinian Authority for statehood in line with the plan proposed in August 2009 by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
The EU has already earmarked €300 million in support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in 2011.
M.A.
