WRITTEN QUESTION E-0637/01 by Theresa Villiers (PPE-DE) to the Commission. EU funding to Yasser Arafat.
Date: 2001-03-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU aid, Palestine question, the EU's international role

11.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 350 E/25

from Africa and the Community. Building on this, the Community will seek to elaborate a communication
on ways and means to develop stronger partnership with local governments, including a comprehensive
policy framework, adapted (financial) instruments and clarity on the appropriate role division between
local government actors in developing countries and the Community. In this regard, the Community has
systematically stressed the need for Community local and regional authorities to also adjust their policies,
roles, interventions, strategies, and capacities. Such adjustment is required if Community local and regional
authorities are to provide effective forms of support that do not substitute for roles and responsibilities
that local governments in developing countries should play.

(2001/C 350 E/024)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0637/01

by Theresa Villiers (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(6 March 2001)

Subject: EU funding to Yasser Arafat

Could the Commission please confirm whether any EU funding has been passed directly to Yasser

1.
Arafat in cash?

If so, could the Commission confirm:

(cid:129) what sums have been so paid;

(cid:129) how much has been paid;

(cid:129) what dates such payments were made;

(cid:129) whether it is planned to continue to make payments in this way;

(cid:129) from what budget line these payments came;

(cid:129) what the specified purposes of the budget line in question were;

(cid:129) what precautions the Commision is taking to ensure that the funds are used for the specified purposes;

(cid:129) whether payments in cash breach any rules, laws, regulations or principles of good management?

Specifically, could the Commission confirm whether a decision has been taken to pay Mr Arafat

2.
between € 20 and € 30 million per month for as long as the emergency in the Middle East lasts?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(15 May 2001)

The Commission has never funded either President Arafat or the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
directly. The beneficiary of all Community assistance to the Palestinian territories is the Palestinian
Authority through the Ministries of Finance and International Co-operation.

In September 1997, the General Affairs Council requested the Commission to create a rolling fund for the
Palestinian Authority to help cope with the budgetary impact of any freeze of monthly transfers of
Palestinian tax receipts (VAT and customs duties) by the Israeli government. Israel is under an obligation to
make these transfers under Article VI of the 1994 Israeli-Palestinian Protocol on Economic Relations (the
Paris Protocol). A fund of € 25 million was established in January 1998, under budget line 47-100
(MEDA). The conditions and functioning of the instrument are set out in a Financing Agreement between
the Commission and the Ministry of Finance of the Palestinian Authority. Furthermore, the release of funds
is subject to conditions aimed at ensuring the correct use of the funds, including the consolidation of
expenditure and revenue, the control of current expenditure and the adoption of a balanced budget.
Compliance with these conditions is monitored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Monies drawn
from the fund are reimbursable, once Israel resumes its transfers.

C 350 E/26

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

11.12.2001

In October 2000, the Israeli government froze clearance revenue transfers to the Palestinian Authority. In
accordance with the commitments made under the above instrument, the Commission released € 27,5
million (€ 25 + interest) on 7 November 2000 from the facility.

In the light of the worsening situation in the Palestinian territories and the continued Israeli freeze of
revenue transfers, the Commission decided on 13 December 2000, to establish a new special cash facility
of € 90 million (cid:129) under budget line 47-100 (MEDA). A first tranche (€ 30 million) of the new instrument
(cid:129) which is subject to the same conditions as the first cash facility (cid:129) was disbursed on 23 January 2001.

Since December 2000, the situation on the ground has worsened, as has the economic and budgetary
situation of the Palestinian Authority, due the closure of the Palestinian territories by Israel. Since the
beginning of the crisis in October 2000, Palestinian economic activity has decreased by 50 %, the poverty
rate has increased from 21 % to 32 % and unemployment affects 38 % of the population. In addition, the
closure policy and the financial crisis have severely eroded the ability of the Palestinian Authority to
function as an institution.

Under these circumstances, and in order to deal with the needs of the Palestinian Authority in the longer
term, the Commission decided on 13 March 2001 to convert the remaining amount of up to € 60 million
of the special cash facility into direct budgetary aid. This decision is fully in line with the conclusions of
the General Affairs Council meeting of 26 February 2001, which stressed the need for the Union to play
an important role in a concerted international effort aiming at avoiding economic and institutional
collapse in the Palestinian territories, and to make full use of the funds available under the special cash
facility for this purpose.

The disbursement of this budgetary aid is subject to the adoption by the Palestinian Authority of an
austerity budget (cid:129) under close monitoring by the IMF (cid:129) and to the Palestinian commitment to take
measures, inter alia, to fight corruption and increase transparency and good governance. The disbursement
of budgetary aid will be done in the framework of a concerted effort with all international donors under
the auspices of the Ad hoc Liaison Committee.

(2001/C 350 E/025)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0654/01

by Jan Mulder (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 March 2001)

Subject: Destruction of entire herds of cattle when one case of BSE is discovered on a farm

To date, the European Commission has taken the position that it is for the individual Member States to
decide what to do if one case of BSE is discovered on a farm: destruction of the entire herd or destruction
of the cohort. The Member States actually apply both solutions.

Can the Commission indicate the scientific opinion (and the committee which delivered that opinion)

1.
on which it bases its position?

2. Why does the Commission not take the view that, where the Member States(cid:146) attitude is based on the
precautionary principle, that principle should apply uniformly throughout the European Union on the
grounds of the unity of the market?

Is the Commission prepared, where appropriate, to have an investigation carried out as a matter of

3.
urgency into the need to destroy entire herds on a farm where one case of BSE has been discovered?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(6 June 2001)

The present rules on the treatment of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) suspect and confirmed
cases are laid down in Commission Decisions 98/272/EC of 23 April 1998 on epidemio-surveillance for