EU awards $4bn to Jordan

Catherine Ashton Amman - Arabstoday Jordan has been awarded nearly $4bn in financial assistance from the European Union over the next three years, around half of which will come on stream within the next year, it was announced on Wednesday. The announcement came after the conclusion of a meeting of the Jordan-EU Task  Force, which was attended by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton and Jordanian Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh. Khasawneh said the meeting had been “successful in tackling frameworks of cooperation and support that can be provided by the EU to Jordan's political and economic reforms.” While Jordan has been the focus of Arab Spring anti-government protests, Khasawneh said the three billion euros in economic aid did not come with any political strings attached. However, he did state that issues related to constitutional reforms, and municipal and parliamentary elections were discussed during the meeting. “The European Investment Bank is currently working on an extensive pipeline of already identified new projects with an estimated lending activities of up to 400 million euros over the next two years,” Ashton told reporters. The EU financial package is the latest economic boost for Jordan. Energy-exporting Gulf Arab states decided at a summit in December to set up a $5bn fund to help development projects in aspiring Gulf Cooperation (GCC) members Morocco and Jordan. "The higher council agreed to set up a Gulf development fund, which starts with offering support for development projects in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Kingdom of Morocco, to the value of $2.5bn each," the GCC statement said.