Brussels, 30/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to provide new forms of aid to support the reform process in the Palestinian Authority. These will be available to the new government formed by prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abou Mazen) and will help address the reform agenda outlined in the roadmap on the Middle East Peace Process. The new Reform Support Instruments is composed of a EUR 80 million finance facility targeted on the payment of arrears to small enterprises and social services and EUR 10 million for technical assistance to facilitate implementation of reforms of public finance. These new instruments are being introduced in order to build on the achievements of previous support for Palestinian reforms, taking into account the government of Israel's resumption of tax transfers which were withheld from September 2000 to October 2002. The current system of monthly payments of Direct Budgetary Assistance will be discontinued. The new Reform Support Instrument will be paid in addition to a range of other forms of assistance. Taken together, the level of assistance foreseen for the Palestinian Territories in 2003 will be EUR 245million, roughly in line with the level of aid in 2002. This figure includes EUR 57.75 million for UNRWA, EUR 25 million in humanitarian assistance and EUR 20 million in food aid/food security.
Commissioner for External Relations, Chris Patten, said: "Our Direct Budgetary support has been a success: it has helped maintain the PA as a viable interlocutor for future negotiations, it made possible the provision of a basic minimum of social services to the Palestinian population, and since it has been made available only on strict conditions, it has been a lever to encourage important reforms to improve standards of governance, above all transparency and accountability in management of public finances. Now, Israel's resumption of tax transfers allows us to change the form of our assistance - but our objectives remain the same: a stronger PA administration, better conditions for the Palestinian people and a continuing process of reform."
President Romano Prodi and Commissioner Patten also hailed the swearing in of the new government by the Palestinian Legislative Council, noting that the Commission was planning to work closely with the new government team.
The EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, also congratulated the new Palestinian prime minister Abou Mazen as well as Yasser Arafat on the confirmation of the new Palestinian Authority Cabinet by the Palestinian Legislative Council. "I conveyed to the new Prime Minister the assurance that his government will benefit from my personal support and that of the European Union", said Solana in a press release, adding: "We are ready to collaborate fully to move forward the Palestinian Authority's reform process and the peace process with the immediate publication and implementation of the road map. It is time for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resume a constructive dialogue, in the interest of the two peoples who aspire fundamentally to real peace and guaranteed security."