EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced at a donor conference in Rome on Thursday 15 March that the EU was donating €82 million that same day to the 2018 operating budget of the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency in Palestine (UNRWA).
This is an early disbursement of the European Union’s usual annual contribution for 2018 in order to ease the impact of the suspension of US aid (see EUROPE 11951).
Mogherini stated that the EU had pledged to contribute a similar amount to UNRWA for the next two years because predictability of financing is crucial for good planning and resource management.
The Commission says the financing will allow access to education for 500,000 children, primary healthcare for more than 3.5 million patients and aid for more than 250,000 vulnerable refugees.
In 2016 and 2017, the EU and its member states provided UNRWA with €424 million and then €391 million, which makes the EU the biggest donor, the European Commission stated in a press release.
In Rome, Mogherini encouraged the other donors to boost their contribution to UNRWA. "But also contributing countries to check whether each and every one of you cannot increase their sponsorship. And even more importantly, I call on those who have cut funding to rethink their decision", she said, without naming the United States. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)