Brussels, 28/08/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has released € 36 million for Côte d'Ivoire to help this ACP country deal with a very fragile socio-economic situation in the wake of the political crisis the country went through between 1999 and 2001. This amount corresponds to the second tranche of the 8th European Development Fund (EDF) and comes on top of the first tranche of € 84 million. The € 120 million will be used chiefly to finance enhanced aid for the Ivorian state budget in 2002 in the areas of health, agriculture and the environment, and for regional planning and decentralisation.
The Commission's financial effort is in line with the release of funds by other donors as part of the IMF's three-year macroeconomic programme amounting to $ 400 million, approved in March 2002. Cooperation between the Union and the Côte d'Ivoire, which was restricted after the coup d'état on 24 December 1999, had been fully resumed in February 2002 reflecting the policy of openness adopted by the government of the Côte d'Ivoire.
Under the 9th European Fund, the Côte d'Ivoire is also expected to benefit from a financial allocation of EUR 624 million for 2002-2007.