European Union Press Release
PR/11/2011
Jerusalem
05 APRIL 2011
Today the European Union (EU) is providing a contribution of €20 million (around NIS 100 million) to help the Palestinian Authority pay the March salaries and pensions of almost 85,000 Palestinian public service providers and pensioners, both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This contribution is being channelled through PEGASE[1], the European mechanism for support to the Palestinians.
The contribution to the March salaries and pensions comes from the initial €100 million financial package for the occupied Palestinian territory in 2011, which the European Union agreed to frontload in order to help the Palestinian Authority continue providing essential public services to the Palestinian people.
Background
Most of the EU assistance to the Palestinian Authority is channelled through PEGASE, the financial mechanism launched in 2008 to support the three-year Reform and Development Plan presented in 2007. 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, €1.06 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: http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/westbank/
[1] Mécanisme Palestino-Européen de Gestion de l'Aide Socio-Economique (PEGASE)