France, Spain call to shift EU funds from east to south

France and five other south-lying EU members have said the Union should give less money to its post-Soviet neighbours and more to Mediterranean rim countries in the context of the Arab uprisings, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting www.euobserver.com. A letter to EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton dated February 16 and signed by the foreign ministers of France, Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Slovenia says: "The profound popular movements calling for political, economic and social reforms in Tunisia and Egypt argue in favor of reinforcing the European Union's actions in its southern neighborhood." An attached analysis paper notes that out of the €12 billion put aside for the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2007 to 2013, just €1.80 is being spent per capita in Egypt and €7 in Tunisia compared to €25 in Moldova. The analysis paper also proposes: tying future EU money more strictly to democratic reform; redirecting other EU funds, such as development aid, to north Africa and the Middle East; creating new regional schemes on the model of the Danube Strategy; and boosting European Investment Bank lending to Arab countries by €2.5 billion over the next two years. Motivated by recent shows of political strength by neighbors in Egypt, demonstrators in the Middle East and North Africa are taking to the streets of many cities to rally for change. The protests in Algeria, Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen resulted in dozens of people injured and dead, with many economic sectors and other areas being affected.