EU restores PA funding unconditionally
Almost all of the EU member states- 26 out of 27 EU states – voted in favour of the decision to resume financial support for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was suspended two years ago. In doing so, the EU relented on its demands for new measures that it had insisted be taken by the PA to renew funding.
The Palestinian Flag. Credit: Makbula Nassar/Wikimedia Commons
The EU will now renew its financial support unconditionally to the PA. About 80% of this support is allocated to projects, hospitals and aid, while 20% of the funds will be transferred directly to the PA’s coffers.
Sources told TPS that the support amounts to 250 million euros ($260 million) per year, and the total amount is expected to be transferred in the coming months.
The reasons for the suspension of the funding revolved around three issues and conditions that the EU and the PA had disagreed on:
* The Palestinian school curriculum and the requirement that it changes how it refers to Israel, among other education issues.
* The EU’s demand that the PA cease all payments or salaries to the families of the terrorists either held prisoner in Israel or killed or wounded while undertaking acts of terrorism.
*The continued payment by the PA of the salaries for government workers in the Gaza Strip, which the EU opposes.
The Europeans, however, have now withdrawn all of their demands, so the PA will be free to continue to finance the families of terrorists and the Hamas government in Gaza.
