To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the cost to the public purse in the last five years of the conflict in the West Bank, both directly and via the EU.
Answered on
30 July 2015
The UK provided £349 million in support of Palestinian development between 2011-2015 and will provide a further £72 million in 2015/16. This includes support for both Gaza and the West Bank.
DFID's programme contributes to UK policy objectives of a negotiated two-state solution. Following the conflict in Gaza last year, the UK provided £17 million of immediate humanitarian assistance and pledged a further £20 million of early recovery assistance at the Gaza Reconstruction conference in Cairo.
We have already disbursed over 80% of the pledge. European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) is the main EU financial instrument for the OPTs which provides funding to support governance at local and national levels, private sector and economic development and water and land development. In 2014, EU funding through the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) amounted €309.5 million.
The UK contributes to the EU Budget as a whole, and not to individual instruments within it. The UK’s share of the EU’s expenditure in EU instruments is approximately 14.5%.