EU donates 14.9 million euros to Palestinian hospitals in E. Jerusalem

Headline: “The European Union donates 14.9 million euros to Jerusalem’s hospitals”

“The European Union (EU) announced a donation of 14.9 million euros to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in order to cover the medical referrals to East Jerusalem’s hospitals. It indicated that this donation is being funded by the EU, which donated 13 million euros; by the government of Italy, which donated 1 million euros; and by the government of Finland, which donated 900,000 euros.

It explained that ‘This donation aids the hospitals in East Jerusalem in maintaining the essential medical services that are provided to Palestinians.’

EU Representative in the Palestinian Territories Ralph Tarraf said: ‘The PA is standing before a dangerous financial crisis that affects its ability to provide services to the civilians. This new joint European donation comes in order to aid the PA in fulfilling its obligations regarding East Jerusalem’s hospitals, and to guarantee continued essential health services for the sick Palestinians. This is particularly so [given that] East Jerusalem’s hospitals provide quality expert medical services, and it is difficult to provide them in other places in Palestine. They also are among the last Palestinian institutions that continue to function in East Jerusalem, and it is necessary to support their activity and preserve them.’

The European Union has worked to aid the PA since 2012 through organized donations to cover the expenses of medical referrals to the East Jerusalem hospitals, with these expenses amounting to more than 110 million euros from then until now…

Most of the EU’s aid is directed to the PA through the PEGASE mechanism, which is the financial mechanism that [the EU] established in 2008 to aid the PA’s reform and development program and the Palestinian national plans and agendas that came afterwards…

Since February 2008 more than 2.5 billion euros have been transferred through PEGASE.”