How long ago April seems, when the EU announced that it was "suspending" aid to the Palestinian territories in response to the electoral victory of Hamas and the formation of a Hamas government. In fact, from the start this "suspension" of aid was merely partial, with more than half of the habitual EU aid package continuing to be paid out under the heading of "humanitarian" expenditures. Then, in June, as previously reported here on Trans-Int, the EU announced that it was "resuming" the – for all of two months – "suspended" part of the aid. And now we have this from an article on the EU aid budget in the Monday (7 August) edition of Le Figaro:In 2006, the Middle East has been very expensive for the finances of the Union. Despite the Hamas victory, the EU has already dispensed some 309 million euros in aid to the Palestinian territories, a sum which surpasses the annual average of 250 million paid out in previous years.Another proof that the EU is supporting terror...
Note that projected over the entire year, this rate of aid would give an annual figure of over 500 million euros: or, in other words, twice the annual average of previous years – "despite the Hamas victory."