Commission earmarks 1.243 billion EUR for the Mediterranean region

IT

The European Commission has approved funding of over €1.243 billion for co-operation and external aid operations with its Mediterranean partners during 2005-2006. This package of assistance, to be funded under the MEDA programme, illustrates the EU's commitment to support the development of a zone of peace, prosperity and sustainable development with its Mediterranean neighbours. Algeria (€106 million), Egypt (€243 million), Jordan (€110 million), Lebanon (€70 million), Morocco (€275 million), Syria (€80 million), and Tunisia (€144 million) and the region as a whole (€215 million), will benefit from this assistance.

The European Commission funds approved for the 2005-2006 period will help advance the implementation of the Association Agreements with partner countries and finance projects in a wide range of sectors such as support towards institutional and economic reform, human rights and democratisation projects, the fight against poverty and education and training. These operations come under the 2005-2006 National and Regional Indicative Programmes for the Mediterranean countries.

External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten remarked: "This decision illustrates the extent of our political commitment to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: we put our money where our mouth is. We are determined to continue developing the Barcelona Process to foster democratic stability, security and sustainable development throughout the Euro-Med region, against a background of increasing interdependency between the EU and its Southern neighbours. I am confident the coming Euro-Med Ministerial meeting in Dublin on 5-6 May will take us another step forward in this direction. In parallel, we will soon outline our strategic thinking to develop our Neighbourhood Policy, which will build on the achievements so far of the Barcelona Process."

Background

The Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, held in Barcelona on 27-28 November 1995, marked the starting point of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Barcelona Process), a wide framework of political, economic and social relations between the 15 Member States of the European Union and 12 Partners of the Southern Mediterranean (Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey). The MEDA programme is the main financial instrument for the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. From 1995 to 2003, MEDA committed over €5.4 billion in bilateral and regional co-operation programmes.


More information on MEDA:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/projects/med/index_en.htm

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