The EU Continues its Support to the Palestinian Authority:
€22.5 Million to the Payment of July Salaries and Pensions
Today, the European Union (EU) is contributing €22.5 million (around NIS 110 million) to help the Palestinian Authority pay the July salaries and pensions of almost 83,000 Palestinian public service providers and pensioners. This contribution is channeled through PEGASE, the European mechanism for support to the Palestinians.
The €22.5 million contribution comes from the overall €145 million financial package in direct support to the Palestinian Authority budget of 2011, which the European Union agreed to frontload at the request of Prime Minister Fayyad in order to meet the Palestinian Authority’s urgent financial needs and to respect the EU’s commitment to being a regular and reliable donor.
“This is a clear message of our solid commitment toward the Palestinian people at this critical time” said Christian Berger, the EU Representative. “We join our voice to PM Fayyad and call on other donors to respect and fulfil their commitments to the PA to ensure that the Palestinian people will continue to receive the essential services and the progress that been achieved by the Palestinian Authority so far is sustained.”
Background
Most of the European Union’s assistance to the Palestinian Authority is channelled through PEGASE, the financial mechanism launched in 2008 to support the PA Reform and Development Plan (2008-2010) and the subsequent PA Palestinian National Plan (2011-2013). As well as helping to meet a substantial proportion of its running costs, European funds support major reform and development programmes in key ministries, to help prepare the PA for statehood in line with the plan put forward by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in August 2009. Since February 2008, €1.12 billion have been disbursed through the PEGASE Direct Financial Support programmes. In addition, the EU has provided assistance to the Palestinian people through UNRWA and a wide range of cooperation projects.
For further information in Arabic and English on the EU’s assistance to the occupied Palestinian territory and the PEGASE mechanism, please visit:
Contact:
The Office of the European Union Representative, West Bank and Gaza Strip, UNRWA
Antonia Zafeiri, Tel: +972 (0) 2 5415 859, Mob: +972 (0) 548 024 915
Shadi Othman, Tel: +972 (0) 2 541 5867, Mob: +972 (0) 599 673 958
Download Document Files: https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/PR182011a.pdf
Document Type: Arabic text, Press Release
Document Sources: European Union (EU), PEGASE
Subject: Assistance, Economic issues, Living conditions, Occupation, Situation in the OPT including Jerusalem, Statehood-related
Publication Date: 02/08/2011