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EU to fill Palestinian funds gap
Europe has stepped in to save the Palestinian Authority from imminent financial collapse with an offer of 120m euros ($140m; £83m) emergency aid.
The European Commission says the money is for "basic needs" and will keep the authority running for about two months.
The international community is debating whether to fund the authority when militant Hamas group takes power.
Israel responded to the Hamas election win in January by cutting off monthly payments of $50m in tax revenues.
About 64m euros will go through UN agencies to the poorest in the Palestinian territories, the Commission says.
A further proportion will pay electricity and oil bills and about 20m euros will pay the salaries of Palestinian Authority officials.
It is the Europe Union's first payment to the PA since the 25 January election win by Hamas, which the EU describes as a terrorist organisation.
The 25-member Union has refused to indicate whether it will maintain its funding for the PA with Hamas running the government.
European foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss the issue, although officials say no decision is expected until a Hamas-led cabinet is formed.
"The issue before the EU is whether we resume aid to the existing interim authority, not to any Hamas government that has yet to be sworn in," said UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Democratic choice
Hamas has been urged by donors to change its policies towards Israel, including recognising its right to exist and renouncing violence.
Hamas officials have called on aid donors to respect the Palestinian people's democratic choice of government.
"We are awaiting to see a positive position from the EU over the support to the Palestinian people, who chose Hamas to represent them," said Hamas political leader Khalil Abu Laila in an interview with Reuters news agency.
The caretaker Palestinian government faces a salary bill of $60m-$80m for February which it needs to pay next week, according to international envoy James Wolfensohn.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4754580.stm
The international community is debating whether to fund the authority when militant Hamas group takes power.
Israel responded to the Hamas election win in January by cutting off monthly payments of $50m in tax revenues.
About 64m euros will go through UN agencies to the poorest in the Palestinian territories, the Commission says.
A further proportion will pay electricity and oil bills and about 20m euros will pay the salaries of Palestinian Authority officials.
It is the Europe Union's first payment to the PA since the 25 January election win by Hamas, which the EU describes as a terrorist organisation.
The 25-member Union has refused to indicate whether it will maintain its funding for the PA with Hamas running the government.
European foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss the issue, although officials say no decision is expected until a Hamas-led cabinet is formed.
"The issue before the EU is whether we resume aid to the existing interim authority, not to any Hamas government that has yet to be sworn in," said UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Democratic choice
Hamas has been urged by donors to change its policies towards Israel, including recognising its right to exist and renouncing violence.
Hamas officials have called on aid donors to respect the Palestinian people's democratic choice of government.
"We are awaiting to see a positive position from the EU over the support to the Palestinian people, who chose Hamas to represent them," said Hamas political leader Khalil Abu Laila in an interview with Reuters news agency.
The caretaker Palestinian government faces a salary bill of $60m-$80m for February which it needs to pay next week, according to international envoy James Wolfensohn.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4754580.stm
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The differences are over Israel's refusal to transfer between $50m and $60m a month in duties it collects on the PA's behalf - most of which is used to pay salaries - and the increasingly hard line taken by its government against the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.
The bulk of yesterday's EU-agreed aid package will go on direct humanitarian aid paid through the UN and other agencies. But the EU will also release $21m for salaries which had been frozen in a World Bank Trust fund - providing this is spent before the new Palestinian government is formed.
Yesterday's EU decision followed a stern warning by James Wolfensohn, a former World Bank chairman and the international community's special envoy, that the failure to pay salaries "may have wide-ranging consequences - not only for the Palestinian economy, but also for security and stability for both the Palestinians and the Israelis".
Some European member states, including Britain, had argued, against German-led opposition, that the World Bank sum should be doubled to help meet the salary bill, and some European diplomats said a further tranche could yet be forthcoming.
Mr Wolfensohn's letter of 25 February to the international quartet, leaked to Reuters and AP, had said that the PA was facing financial collapse within two weeks because of the Israeli decision to cut off funding.
A separate note composed two days earlier by Mr Wolfensohn and seen by The Independent said that among remedies for the PA's cash crisis, the international community should "insist that Israel pays $60m monthly cash receipts to Palestinians". It said that $60m to $80m is needed to pay part of the PA's wages and that remedies will "be difficult without US pressure to persuade Israel to reverse its decision" to withhold the transfers.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article348182.ece
"Today I will announce a very substantial package of assistance to meet basic needs," European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters, said Reuters.
The EU funds, estimated at 120 million euros ($ 142million), will include 40 million euros to pay energy bills and 64 million euros channeled through the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
"In effect we will pay electricity bills for them, direct to the utilities concerned, including in Israel," Ferrero-Waldner said.
The EU has also decided to unblock17 . 5million euros in funding, the only payment that will be made directly to the PA to help pay salaries.
The PA is dependent on foreign aid and on tax revenues collected by Israel on its behalf to pay its140 , 000employees and keep its ministries and institutions functioning.
The EU, which is the biggest provider of aid to the Palestinians, and the US have threatened to cut off of aid to the Palestinians after Hamas's landslide election win.
Washington has already demanded the return of $ 50million in aid to prevent it falling into Hamas's hands. Since1993 , the Palestinians have received around $1. 5billion from Washington.
Hamas has rejected threats of a fund cut-off as blackmail and said it would seek assistance from Arabs and Muslims, both at the grassroots and government levels.
More
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2006-02/27/article06.shtml