EU approves crisis aid for 19 poor countries
(BRUSSELS) - The European Union began to disburse on Thursday 264 million euros in aid to help 19 of the most vulnerable African, Caribbean and Pacific countries cope with the global economic crisis.
The funding is the second part of a 500-million-euro (640-million-dollar) programme launched last year to help countries "most affected by the crisis due to their poor resilience to external shocks," the European Commission said.
The EU's executive arm approved 14 million euros for Burkina Faso and 3.5 million euros for Grenada on Thursday.
Allocations for the other 17 countries will be made later this year -- Antigua & Barbuda, Benin, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu and Zimbabwe.
"Developing countries continue to face important difficulties, including funding gaps in their government's budgets, as a direct consequence of the global financial crisis," European Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said.
The aid will help the countries "maintain their level of public spending in priority areas and therefore mitigate the social impact of the economic downturn," he said.
Fifteen countries benefited from a first tranche of the so-called Vulnerability FLEX (V-FLEX) mechanism totalling 236 million euros.
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