Barroso pledges €1.24 billion for EU’s neighbours

Extra funds to encourage transition to democracy.

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, said today that the EU would provide an extra €1.24 billion to support its southern and eastern neighbours.

In a statement issued ahead of a summit of the G8 group of the world’s richest countries, being held in Deauville, France, on 26 May, Barroso said: “The European Commission has today decided to increase the funding for European Neighbourhood Policy by €1.24bn, increasing the EU’s support to our partners in the South and the East to nearly €7bn over the next two years.”

The money is intended to help countries in north Africa and the Middle East where popular uprisings have forced out autocratic rulers.

Barroso said the additional funding was a “tangible expression of our commitment to reforms in the partner countries”.

Barroso said the EU would impose strict conditions on those countries that wished to receive funding. “We need to set clearer conditions and give ‘more for more’,” he said. He said the EU was planning to create a European endowment for democracy to support democratic change in neighbouring countries and a civil society facility to enhance the political role of non-state actors, such as NGOs or social partners.

Barroso said that aid was not enough to respond to the socio-economic challenges in the EU’s neighbourhood. “We need to do more to boost growth and jobs. I will push for faster free trade agreements, targeted concessions and smart investment facilities. That is a win-win situation for us and our partners,” he said.

The European Commission is planning to publish a new European Neighbourhood Policy tomorrow, setting out in detail how it plans to help neighbouring countries make the transition to greater democracy.

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