Bethlehem - Ma'an - Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and EU Representative Christian Berger ratified a new financial agreement to support the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday.

The Financing Agreement, including a 0.5 million Euro contribution from Austria, was pledged to support to the Palestinain Authority's (PA) recurrent expenditures for 2010. The funds will be channeled to the PA’s payments of salaries and pensions and its social protection program via the EU's PEGASE program.

In addition to assisting the PA in sustaining public services and paying civil servants, the agreement will provide support for vulnerable Palestinians through regular contributions to social allowances via the Ministry of Social Affair’s social protection program.

"This agreement comes at a time where the Palestinian people are in need of all kind of continuous support in order to be able to build the state institutions and develop its sectors. Such agreements also help the Palestinian people to face the obstacles they live with and provide the possibilities to continue in the development process,” Fayyad said.

This most recent financial agreement falls in line with 66 million Euros of support donated to UNRWA’s General Fund to ensure the delivery of public services to Palestinian refugees.

Berger said that the EU’s support for the PA is aimed at strengthening its institutions and sustain services provided to Palestinians. “Our investments are designed to contribute to the goal - shared by the EU and the PA - of creating a Palestinian state which will exist side by side in peace with Israel. But the sustainable impact of these investments will be only guaranteed if there is progress toward that goal."

The EU and the PA will begin discussions next week on a second financing package of 71 million Euros to reinforce Palestinian institutions in accordance with Fayyad’s Palestine: Moving Forward Plan announced last week and the two year state building plan announced in August 2009, the statement read.

The EU is the largest single donor to the Palestinian people. Since 2007 it has provided total assistance to the Palestinian people, including civil society organizations and refugees, averaging more than €500 million annually. “European funds support major reform and development programs in key ministries, to help prepare the Palestinian Authority for statehood in line with the plan proposed in August 2009 by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad,” the statement concluded.