EU DONATES $18.8M TO ENABLE PA TO PAY STAFF SALARIES IN HEALTH, EDUCATION SECTOR

Thu 04 November 2021:

According to a statement released on Wednesday, the European Union (EU) has contributed 18.8 million dollars to the Palestinian Authority to assist with the payment of salaries and pensions for employees in the health and education sectors for the month of October.

According to the EU office in Palestine, the funds have already been delivered to the Palestinian Ministry of Finance.

The Palestinian Authority is suffering from a financial crisis and is close to a “breaking point,” a United Nations official has recently said.

The income of the Palestinian Authority has been hit by Israel deducting some of the tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PA.

Israel has said the money is used to pay stipends to the families of killed Palestinians and certain prisoners.

UNRWA’s funding comes almost entirely from voluntary donations made by UN member states. The agency has faced severe financial difficulties since the US administration of President Donald Trump stopped US aid donations altogether in 2018.

Prior to the Trump administration’s cuts, the US had been providing the agency with $350 million a year, more than a quarter of its $1.2 billion annual budget.

In April, however, the Biden administration announced that it was planning to provide $235 million in aid in a bid to engage with the PA and move forward on a two-state solution.

Since 1971, the strategic partnership between the European Union and UNRWA has been based on the shared objective of supporting the human development, humanitarian and protection needs of Palestinian refugees and to promoting stability in the Middle East.

In June 2017, the EU and UNRWA signed a “2017-2020 Joint Declaration”, strengthening the political nature of their partnership and reaffirming the European Union’s commitment to promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees.

The Declaration also confirmed the EU’s support for the long-term financial stability of the Agency in a context of intensified budgetary constraints and operational challenges.

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