Brussels, 14/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - Reform in the European Union's southern neighbourhood countries will get an €85.5 million boost from the EU, the European Parliament (EP) budgets committee decided on Wednesday, when it adopted a proposal on budget transfers from rapporteur Sidonia Jêdrzejewska (EPP, Poland).
The money will initially go to countries that are already making progress on reform, such as Tunisia, Jordan, and Morocco. It will be in addition to funds already earmarked for countries in the region. The exact allocation of the extra money will depend on the progress of reform in each country.
The extra money comes from budgets not fully used in South and Latin America (€26 million), mainly for programmes in “emerging income countries” such as Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil. Some also comes from unspent funding for programmes for middle-income countries in Asia, such as India and Thailand (€25 million) and from EU money not used by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (€34.5 million).
The funds may be used, inter alia, to promote democracy and better governance, regional co-operation, support for the media and civil society or migration-related projects.
Jêdrzejewska said she was “happy with this quick decision”, adding that “we now show that we back up our political commitments with EU funding for countries undertaking reform”. The Council of Ministers accepted the change last week. Budget transfers such as this do not need to be voted by Parliament as a whole. (L.C./transl.rt)