UAE/TURKISH BUSINESS RELATIONS
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Dr. Nilgün Birgören Premium Member Group moderatorThe company name is only visible to registered members.G8 financial aid for 'Arab Spring'
Leading nations' financial support for the so-called Arab Spring will reduce extremism and immigration, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
The UK is giving £110m over four years for political and economic development in North Africa and the Middle East.
At the two-day G8 summit in France, the UK and US are pushing for other pledges of financial support.
Mr Cameron said the summit should send a message to the countries of the Arab Spring that "we are on your side".
The £110m from the UK will come out of the existing Department for International Development budget.
The money constitutes the UK's contribution to calls for the G8 group of leading industrialised nations to do all they can to encourage the so-called Arab Spring.
The Foreign Office said up to £40m would be spent over the next four years to improve political participation, the rule of law and freedom of the press.
A further £70m will go towards economic reform, helping to boost youth employment, strengthen anti-corruption measures and promote private sector investment.
Speaking in Deauville, where the G8 summit is taking place, Mr Cameron said: "I want a very simple and clear message to come out of this summit, and that is that the most powerful nations on Earth have come together and are saying to those in the Middle East and North Africa who want greater democracy, greater freedom, greater civil rights, we are on your side.
"We will help you build your democracy, we will help your economies, we will help you build trade. We will help you in all the ways we can because the alternative to a successful democracy is more of the poisonous extremism that has done so much damage in our world."
The UK commitment is a significant increase on the £5m of funds announced for the Arab Partnership Initiative in February by the foreign secretary.
Mr Cameron added: "What I'd say to everybody about the issue of overseas aid and the money that will be pledged at this summit is that there is a real case for saying, if we can secure greater democracy and freedom in countries like Egypt and Tunisia, that is good for us back at home.
"That will mean less extremism, it will mean more peace and prosperity, and it will mean there won't be the pressures of immigration that we might otherwise face to our own country."
The wave of uprisings in the Arab world began in Tunisia in January and led to the fall of the government there, and subsequently in Egypt.
There have also been pro-democracy demonstrations in countries including Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, and the suppression of a similar movement in Libya has led to the intervention of Nato to protect civilians.
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: "Today's announcement of a new UK Arab Partnership recognises that poverty and disenfranchisement are the major drivers of the demand for change.
"It helps to address key grievances, providing people with better education and economic opportunities and improved access to global markets.
"We know that economic transformation alone without real political change - which gives people a voice, dignity, security and justice - won't work. And that is why we will focus on the twin tracks of economic and political reform."
Source: BBCNews
- 27 May 2011, 10:28 am
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Dr. Nilgün Birgören Premium Member Group moderatorThe company name is only visible to registered members.
Minister says no EU “blank cheque” for Arab Spring nations
The European Union should cut off aid payments to Arab Spring countries that fail to deliver on economic and political reform, Britain’s Europe Minister David Lidington said on Friday.
Minister says no EU “blank cheque” for Arab Spring nations
In an interview with Reuters, Lidington also said Britain did not want the gate to be “slammed shut” on EU enlargement once Croatia had joined the 27-nation bloc. He signalled Britain’s determination to impose a freeze on EU spending.
Lidington, a Conservative, noted that the EU had been spending 1.2-1.5 billion euros annually on aid to Arab and North African countries.
Popular anger has prompted a series of uprisings across the Arab world, leaving European nations to ponder how to back political reform, curb the flow of refugees from its southern neighbours and halt the spread of Islamic militancy.
“Our view is that Europe needs to be ambitious and generous in its response to the Arab Spring but that this is our taxpayers’ money, therefore it’s right that we say the money must be linked to results,” Lidington said.
“The money should be targeted upon those countries which are committed seriously to both economic and political reform. If there is evidence of backsliding, the money should be stopped,” he added. “I think taxpayers throughout Europe would not understand blank cheques.”
Lidington said EU proposals to link aid to democratic reform presented last month were a big step in the right direction, but Britain wanted to see more offered in terms of market access as an incentive.
He suggested the European single market could eventually be opened up to North African countries.
“We’re perhaps looking at something similar to the European Economic Area under which Norway is part of the European single market, applies all the EU regulations but is not actually a member of the EU,” he said, noting that such a scenario was a long way off.
Lidington said he hoped that the carrot of EU membership would remain on offer for countries in the Balkans once Croatia joins the bloc. The target date for Croatian membership is July 2013.
“They should be, I hope, a beacon for other Balkan countries, not the last country through the gate that is then slammed shut,” he said, seeing the goal of eventual EU membership as a real driver of reform.
Lidington said it should eventually be possible for former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova to join the EU — a move that would raise hackles in Moscow.
“In principle, we see no reason why the Republic of Moldova or Ukraine or Georgia should not become members of the European Union. It is not going to happen any time soon,” he added.
But Britain, where the EU is viewed with deep scepticism, is not prepared to countenance an expansion of the EU’s budget.
The European Commission is due to set out proposals for the bloc’s next long-term budget in the next few weeks and EU lawmakers are pressing for an increase of at least five percent.
“We think there should be at most a real-terms freeze in the new multi-annual financial framework,” Lidington said. “I think it is impossible to justify to taxpayers in Britain, or in other European countries, why an increase in the EU’s budget is justified at a time when domestic spending is being cut back, sometimes very painfully.”
Source: Reuters
- 20 Jun 2011, 08:52 am
