EU to PA: Europe can’t finance PA workers’ salaries in Gaza who haven’t worked since 2007
Headline: “A European diplomat: We can’t continue paying salaries to those who don’t work”
“A European diplomat said that the European Union had notified the PA in recent talks that Europe cannot continue the financial aid [that pays] workers’ salaries in Gaza if they continue not to work. The diplomat, who wished to remain anonymous, told Al-Ayyam: ‘We told the PA that it is difficult for the European Union to continue justifying the aid for paying workers’ salaries in the Gaza Strip in the absence of a solution to this problem, since they stopped working in 2007.’ He stated: ‘The direct financial aid offered by the EU to the PA is aimed at enabling the PA to offer basic services to the citizens and enable them to keep functioning.’ He added: ‘Without the capacity to do so, we told the PA that the EU cannot provide unlimited aid for paying the workers’ salaries.’ These workers have remained in their homes since the events of mid-2007 (Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip. – Ed.) and the PA has continued to pay their salaries since. The European diplomat said: ‘In view of the existence of a national consensus government, these workers should have come back to work. We cannot justify to our parliaments the aid for salaries for workers who do not work.’ The European diplomat said that thousands of employees of the education and the healthcare sectors may soon return to their workplaces, especially in view of the urgent need of workers in these two sectors in the Strip. The European official said that this issue must be resolved soon.”
“A European diplomat said that the European Union had notified the PA in recent talks that Europe cannot continue the financial aid [that pays] workers’ salaries in Gaza if they continue not to work. The diplomat, who wished to remain anonymous, told Al-Ayyam: ‘We told the PA that it is difficult for the European Union to continue justifying the aid for paying workers’ salaries in the Gaza Strip in the absence of a solution to this problem, since they stopped working in 2007.’ He stated: ‘The direct financial aid offered by the EU to the PA is aimed at enabling the PA to offer basic services to the citizens and enable them to keep functioning.’ He added: ‘Without the capacity to do so, we told the PA that the EU cannot provide unlimited aid for paying the workers’ salaries.’ These workers have remained in their homes since the events of mid-2007 (Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip. – Ed.) and the PA has continued to pay their salaries since. The European diplomat said: ‘In view of the existence of a national consensus government, these workers should have come back to work. We cannot justify to our parliaments the aid for salaries for workers who do not work.’ The European diplomat said that thousands of employees of the education and the healthcare sectors may soon return to their workplaces, especially in view of the urgent need of workers in these two sectors in the Strip. The European official said that this issue must be resolved soon.”