European Commission approves $35 million payment

The European Commission has approved the disbursement to Cote d'Ivoire of $35.4 million as part of a grant package worth $118 million for health, agriculture, the environment, regional planning and decentralisation. The money will be made available under the eighth European Development Fund, a financial package granted to support poverty reduction programmes in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. "Cote d'Ivoire is having to tackle a particularly precarious socio-economic situation in the wake of the political crisis the country went through between 1999 and 2001, but significant external and internal arrears have put a brake on its ability to act," an EC statement said on Wednesday. The European Union, of which the Commission is the secretariat, resumed full cooperation with Cote d'Ivoire in February and has said the country can expect to benefit to the tune of $262 million under the ninth European Development Fund.