EU to boost financial support for Palestinian Authority

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The European Union will increase its financial support for the Palestinian Authority with a three-year package worth around 1.6 billion
euros ($1.8 billion), the European Commissioner responsible for the Middle East told Reuters in an interview. Dubravka Suica, the European
Commissioner for the Mediterranean, said the financial support would go hand in hand with reforms of the Palestinian Authority, which has
been accused by critics of corruption and bad governance. We want them to reform themselves because without reforming, they wont be strong
enough and credible in order to be an interlocutor, not for only for us, but an interlocutor also for Israel, Suica said. The commissioners
remarks came ahead of a first high-level political dialogue between European Union foreign ministers and senior Palestinian officials
including Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Luxembourg on Monday. The EU is the biggest donor to the Palestinians and EU officials hope the
Palestinian Authority, which runs the West Bank, may also one day take responsibility for Gaza after the war between Israel and Hamas
militants comes to an end, Reuters reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government, however, has so far rejected the idea of
handing over Gaza to the PA and shunned the EUs broader aim of a two-state solution, which would include the establishment of a Palestinian
state. Suica said 620 million euros would go to financial support and reform of the PA, 576 million euros to resilience and recovery of the
West Bank and Gaza and 400 million euros would come in loans from the European Investment Bank, subject to the approval of its governing
body, Reuters reported. She said average EU support for the PA had amounted to about 400 million euros over the past 12 years. We are
investing now in a credible manner in the Palestinian Authority, Suica said. I think that the United States Steel one of the great companies
of the world should remain in our country. The post EU to boost financial support for Palestinian Authority first appeared on TINS News.