EU earmarks 400 million Euro for Côte d'Ivoire's reconstruction

Paris, France (PANA) - The European Union has decided to grant 400 million euro to Cote d'Ivoire to help the Ivorian authorities rebuild the country and put it back on track to prosperity, European Commission chairman Romano Prodi said Sunday in Paris.
"The European Commission is naturally ready to mobilise resources necessary for Cote d'Ivoire to regain stability and economic development," Prodi said, adding that the budget allocated to Cote d'Ivoire for the upcoming five years amounted to 400 million euro.

On the amount, 150 million Euro "can rapidly be used to meet the out-of-crisis priorities," he said.

Moreover, the European official said, "the EU support would only be meaningful and effectively implemented on the express condition that the solemn undertakings made during the conference be turned into reality and if peace, stability and security are restored on a permanent basis by strictly respecting human rights."

The EU also announced that it might "consider financing the functioning of the International Follow-up Committee." The EU and the World Bank might also contribute to the operations of demobilisation and resettlement of the armed groups, he added.

"Other measures are on the way, basically on the humanitarian front and in the field of reforms of the legislative framework, the land ownership scheme and trans-border co-operation to avoid any re-emergence of the unrest affecting the populations," Prodi added.

He recalled that since the outbreak of the Ivorian conflict, the EU has "on several occasions, condemned the use of force to undermine legal institutions and human rights, and expressed the need of an all-inclusive political solution" to the crisis.