EU Resumes Financial Aid to Palestinian President's Government

The European Union resumed financial assistance to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, ending a boycott imposed when rival Palestinian group Hamas temporarily formed a coalition with Abbas last year.

"We have been quick to react to the new situation,'' EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters today at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Viana do Castelo, Portugal. "We have changed the disbursement mechanism and we have reoriented it.''

The resumption of financial aid to Abbas's Fatah government on the West Bank, first announced in June, marks the end of the financial embargo imposed on the Palestinian leadership after Hamas, a sworn enemy of Israel, became part of a short-lived Palestinian unity government last year. The economic boycott of Hamas, which is in control of the Gaza Strip, continues.

The EU has been the main donor to the Palestinians, providing 700 million euros ($964 million) in 2006. The money went for welfare support and through United Nations agencies, bypassing Hamas.

Bloomberg