France takes aim at European Commission for Palestinian aid delay

The European Union executive is under growing pressure to disburse €225 million ($240 million) for Palestinian public services, with France among those fighting an attempt by the European Commission to condition part of the funding on changes to textbooks that some commissioners have linked to antisemitism. Sixteen EU countries voted against the commission’s latest spending proposal for 2021-2023 on Monday, which “envisaged” a “supplementary financial allocation” of €12.5 million in exchange for “significant progress” on an education sector road map comprising “policy dialogue, continuous engagement and incentives, including curriculum development and textbook review.” That language was another attempt to convince member states to back the idea of including education sector reform along with public finance, water, and energy as areas subject to incentive-based funding, after similar proposals in December and March were rejected. Ahead of Monday’s unsuccessful vote, however, a French official argued in diplomatic correspondence, seen by Devex, that funding conditionality, “even reduced,” still “goes against what we have been trying to achieve towards the [Palestinian Authority] and [Middle East peace process] for years” and could set a “dangerous precedent” on other topics. Olivér Várhelyi, the EU commissioner for neighborhood and enlargement policy who oversees the funds, has sought to make changes to the textbooks a condition of EU spending, though sources tell Devex that the Hungarian lacks widespread support internally for his stance. The unknown factor for now is what commission President Ursula von der Leyen plans to do. Von der Leyen, a former German defense minister, could overrule Várhelyi by bringing the issue to a vote of all 27 commissioners as early as Wednesday — though such a move is relatively rare, as the College of Commissioners prefers to operate by consensus where possible. Funding for the Palestinian Authority was the subject of a dedicated meeting of chiefs of staff to the 27 commissioners last week but did not feature in the weekly college meeting on Wednesday this week. Asked why the funding is delayed and whether von der Leyen is aware of the situation, the commission’s chief spokesperson, Eric Mamer, said on May 20: “We don’t comment on commission internal processes. … Once the decision has been made, we will communicate on it. In the meantime, the commission is working on this question.” Ambassador Omar Awadallah, assistant minister to United Nations and other specialized agencies at Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that conditioning funding is tantamount to discrimination. “We have been calling on the EU to uphold its independence and refrain from politicizing the humanitarian funding for the Palestinian government and the Palestinian people,” he told Devex on Thursday. “Such politicization of humanitarian aid sets dangerous precedent, undermines the humanitarian work that the EU is a champion of, and discriminates against the Palestinian people.” Last year, a commission-funded study on Palestinian textbooks that was conducted by the Georg-Eckert-Institut described a “complex picture,” finding that although the books adhere to UNESCO standards, they also “express a narrative of resistance within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and … display an antagonism towards Israel.” Várhelyi tweeted a response to the study in June of last year: “Firm commitment to fight anti-semitism & engage with Palestinian Authority + @UNRWA [the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency] to promote quality education for Palestinian children & ensure full adherence to @UNESCO standards of peace, tolerance, co-existence, non-violence in Palestinian textbooks.” “The conditionality of our financial assistance in the educational sector needs to be duly considered,” the Hungarian commissioner added on Twitter. Margaritis Schinas, a commission vice president with a wide-ranging portfolio, including the fight against antisemitism, also tweeted at the time that “Hate and antisemitism have no place in classrooms or anywhere.” The EU is the biggest donor to Palestine, contributing to the salaries and pensions of civil servants in the West Bank and to health referrals at east Jerusalem hospitals, among other things. The Norwegian Refugee Council criticized Várhelyi in a press statement last month, saying the funding delay was having a devastating impact on those receiving hospital treatment and cash support. “These restrictions punish terminally ill patients who cannot get lifesaving medicine and force children to go hungry when parents cannot afford to buy food,” said Jan Egeland, NRC’s secretary-general. “Palestinians are paying the cruellest price for political decisions made in Brussels.” In an email to more than a dozen officials from EU countries, the official from the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs presented a scathing assessment of the commission’s most recent proposal ahead of Monday’s vote. “Politicization of humanitarian aid sets dangerous precedent, undermines the humanitarian work that the EU is a champion of, and discriminates against the Palestinian people.” --— Omar Awadallah, assistant minister to U.N. and other agencies, Palestinian Foreign Ministry Writing “to share with you some thoughts from Paris,” he said: • “Politically speaking, we still think that conditionality, even reduced, is not appropriate in the current context and goes against what we have been trying to achieve towards the PA [Palestinian Authority] and [Middle East peace process] for years. • “In terms of procedure: we had to wait three months (since the last vote …) to get a new proposal and yet conditionality is still there whereas a significant number of Member States have repeatedly positioned themselves against — including at the level of Ministers —. Not to mention the fact that we have only less than one effective working day to answer the procedure, which is more than dubious a practice. • “In terms of timing : despite the urgency to disburse these funds, we understand that the president of the Commission wants to sign the financing agreement during her visit to Palestine on June 12th. In that context, the EU is not expected to disburse the funds before that date. It gives the Commission plenty of time to come back to us with a new proposal (without conditionality) in case we reach a negative opinion on the current one.” • And “Last, but not least : if the Commission(er) gets a form of victory on this, it might set a dangerous precedent in as much as discussions on other topics (Palestinian NGOs, joint strategy) might get even more complicated.” The countries that voted against the latest proposal Monday were Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, and Sweden, while Spain abstained.