MANCHESTER, 11 September 2005 — EU finance ministers agreed yesterday to support the battered economy of the Palestinian territories as Israel prepares to withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip. “We had a discussion of what we at this historic time could as European Union finance ministers do to improve that process in peace and development,” Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister), Gordon Brown, told reporters.
They also studied a loan guarantee plan aimed at boosting small and medium sized businesses in the conflict-torn territories, and asked the European Commission and European Investment Bank to try to make further progress. “We have invited the commission and the ... bank to take forward technical work on a European support package, including discussions with other international partners to establish a loan guarantee scheme for small businesses,” Brown said.
The ministers gave no figures on what the support might amount to, but a Palestinian economic think-tank believes that companies in the territories would need around a billion euros ($1.24 billion) over the next five years.
According to official statistics, the rate of unemployment in the Palestinian territories stands at 26 percent of the working population, with 62 percent of Palestinian families living below the poverty line.
Both the Palestinian and Israeli economies slumped after the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, in 2000. But they have picked up since Jewish settlers began leaving the strip under orders from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Israeli troops are due to complete their pullout from the Gaza Strip on Monday if the move is endorsed by the Israeli Cabinet, effectively ending 38 difficult and bloody years of occupation.
