It has been published the proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted by the European Community within the ACP-EC Committee of Ambassadors regarding a decision on the allocation of resources to Somalia from the Tenth European Development Fund (COM(2008) 574 final).

Somalia was a member of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (know as “ACP countries”) Group of States until late 1991, when the government was overthrown. Since then Somalia has been unable to establish a recognised government and consequently to ratify the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement between the Community, the Member States and the ACP, signed on 23 June 2000 in Cotonou and revised on 25 June 2005

Based on the allocation criteria adopted by Commission Decision C(2007) 3617 of 1 August 2007, an amount of EUR 212 million was established for programmable activities (envelope A) and EUR 3.8 million for unforeseen needs (envelope B) by Commission Decision C(2007) 5223 of 30 October 2007. These allocations have to be confirmed by the ACP-EC Council of Ministers.

The Somalia Special Support programme 2008-2013, outlining the programmes to be implemented with this funding, and the EU+ Norway 2008-2013 Somalia Strategy Paper, have been approved on 10 June by Member States in the Committee of the European Development Fund.

Allocated budget

An amount of EUR 215.8 million shall be taken from the Tenth European Development Fund reserve for national and regional cooperation for special support in favour of Somalia in accordance with Article 93(6) of the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement. From this amount:

• EUR 212 million shall be used for institution building and economic and social development activities, taking particular account of the needs of the most vulnerable sections of the population. This allocation shall be programmed under a special assistance strategy.
• EUR 3.8 million shall be used to cover unforeseen needs such as emergency assistance where such support cannot be financed from the EU budget.