MEP Ramona Mănescu had an intervention during the “Safeguarding the peace process – can the EU be an ‘honest broker’?” conference organized Wednesday, 13th of January 2016, at the European Parliament by EIPA – Europe Israel Public Affairs together with EPP Group and S&D Group. Mănescu stated that that the European Union must be ”capable of verifying the efficiency of the projects run by Palestinian Authority with European money. We must ask EEAS and European Commission to do more in order to be sure that our efforts, in the end, reach the people we care for and for which were destined.”
Alongside the guest speakers from the European Parliament, the Conference enjoyed the presence of Orit Perlov – Israel Institute for National Security Studies, Raffaella Iodice – Head of Middle East Unit – DG NEAR, Itamar Marcus – Palestinian Media Watch, Shuli Davidovich – Deputy Head of the Israeli Mission to EU, Raul Fuentes Milani – Head of the Unit Middle East Peace Process Israel and Palestina – EEAS, Sheldon Schulman – former advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister on counter-terrorism, Jean-Marie Frentz – Middle East Director, Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.
Full intervention:
“It is sad that after so many years of founding dedicated to this region we didn’t manage to solve not even partially the problems this region is struggling with. And the problems are so many: social problems, access to education, poor infrastructure, economic opportunities.
As effect of our funding we were expecting to see hospitals, schools and children with access to education, a better infrastructure, and a country strongly on its democratic way. We must admit that these changes are not visible yet and this is a sad reality.
This is not acceptable and we cannot close our eyes to this situation. Palestinian Authority can and must be questioned regarding the outcome of the financial support received. We have, for example, the case of so many youth NGOs that received European money, many of them little organizations that run programs of just couple of thousands of euros a year. These NGOs managed not only to spend the money in a proper manner but also to report for every cent spent. If such NGOs can and must do a report for the money spent, the same rules should apply for any other beneficiary.
Such a report, should not be just another bureaucratic procedure but a transparent one, capable to ensure us, beyond any doubt, that the money were spent in an efficient way, they didn’t end up in the wrong hands or activities and they reached those we care about, the people in need. I think we should focus more on the efficiency and the results of the programs dedicated to poverty eradication, health, education, capacity building and economic development. European funding, in the end, is meant to build a fully functional Palestinian State, peaceful and stable, capable of caring for its people and offer them not only today’s basic needs but a credible prosperous future.
We already have the control mechanisms, at the level of EEAS, capable of verifying the efficiency of the projects run by Palestinian Authority with European money. We must ask EEAS and European Commission to do more in order to be sure that our efforts, in the end, reach the people we care for and for which were destined.”
More about the event on EIPA – Europe Israel Public Affairs web page.
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