January 30, 3009
The European Union has given Ethiopia 251 million euros (322 million dollars) in aid to boost development projects across the Horn of Africa nation, the government said Friday.
The agreement was signed Thursday by the bloc’s Director of Aid to sub-saharan Africa, Carribean and Pacific regions Gary Quince and Ethiopia’s Finance and Economic Development Minister Sufian Ahmed.
“The grant will be used for development assistance through road sector policy support… forest management and to implement some other development activities,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
The EU is one of the top development contributors to Ethiopia, an impoverished country of 77 million and among the world’s top aid recipients.
Source: AFP
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European MPs clash with EU acts over Ethiopia
WASHINGTON, DC (Jan 30) - Six senior members of the European Parliament (MEPs) said on Wednesday they were worried over the deteriorating human rights conditions in Ethiopia but their concern was erased by EU pumping $322 million into the coffers of one of the most corrupt regimes in Africa.
"We are deeply concerned by the re-arrest of Ms. Birtukan Mideksa, leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party," the MEPs said in a joint statement, one day before the EU hugged the Meles Zenawi regime with the generous multi-million-dollar aid.
The lawmakers reiterated a January 15 European Parliament resolution which calls for the immediate release of the 34-year-old Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge which Ethiopians consider as a glitter of hope in the ethnically-fragmented country.
Birtukan, who was released from nearly two years of imprisonment in 2007 on grounds of amnesty initiated by traditional mediation of elders, was re-arrested on December 29 on what observers say the measure was politically motivated.
The MEPs also said they regretted that the parliament had enacted a law which in "practice will outlaw the work of NGOs," and criminalizes the activities of even human rights organizations.
The lawmakers who addressed their letter to the European Commission are Josep Borrell Fontelles, Michael Gahler, Glenys Kinnock, Helene Flautre, Ana Gomes and Luisa Morgantini, officials heading various EP committees such as human rights, foreign relations and development.
Human rights conditions remain dismal in Ethiopia, but the deterioration of political freedoms coupled with government corruption haven't deterred the EU and other lending institutions like IMF and the World Bank from releasing funds to Addis.
Recently the World Bank launched a $150 million development project in Ethiopia.
