Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions she has had with her EU counterparts on (a) the establishment of the European Commission's €42.5m assistance package to the occupied Palestinian territories and (b) the allocation of funding from the the assistance package to projects in East Jerusalem.

The €42.5 million package is financed by the European Commission with the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) which is one of the main sources of support from the European Union (EU) to the Palestinians. All decisions on the allocation of ENI funding go through the ENI Committee in Brussels, at which the UK is represented by officials. The ENI Committee discussed the allocation of €42.5 million to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the allocation of €14.9 million of this to projects in East Jerusalem, on 29 September 2017. Additionally, the EU held discussions on this new package of support with representatives from EU Member States in Jerusalem, including the UK.

We regularly discuss support to the OPTs with EU institutions and other Member States in the relevant Council working groups, including the Council working party on Humanitarian Aid and Food Aid (COHAFA) and the Mashreq/Maghreb Working Party (MaMa).