Brussels, 07/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - Poul Nielson, European Commissioner for Development, has provided his green light for the release of 120 million euro in aid to development for the Democratic Republic of Congo. Allocation of these funds, taken from the European Development Fund (29 million from the 8th Edf and 94 million from the leftovers of the 7th Edf), marks an important stage in the normalisation of relations between the European Union and the RDC, with which the EU had suspended cooperation since 1992 due to the obstacles raised by the Mobutu government to his country's democratic transition.. Nielson has sent a letter to the new President, Joseph Kabila, to inform him of this formal decision.
In a press release, the Commissioner declares: "This decision is the consequence of recent positive developments in the RDC and demonstrated the Commission's willingness to put its support behind the peace and reconciliation process. The funds released would be used to meet priority objectives shared by the EU and the RDC, such as poverty alleviation and promoting human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law. The Commission would continue to monitor progress achieved by the RDC closely and encourage it to keep up its efforts on implementation of the Lusaka Agreements".
The resumption of development cooperation with the RDC comes within the lines of the conclusions of the General Affairs Council of 26 February and talks between Joseph Kabila and Romano Prodi, on 16 March. Kabila's firm commitment in favour of respecting the Lusaka cease-fire and the rekindling of the national democratisation and reconciliation process, with the help of the Facilitator Ketumile Masire (former President of Botswana), led Prodi to announce the resumption of aid in relation to progress made. The resumption of the inter-Congolese dialogue, the respect of the cease-fire and the deployment of Monuc are considered by the European Commission as as many encouraging factors.
The 120 million euro come on top of aid that the European Union continued to provide to the country so as not to punish the population (35 million in humanitarian aid on last March's intervention plan, and funds earmarked for health, food security and education - 40 million euro a year for the past five years).