Describing it as “irredeemably flawed”, the United States announced on 31 August it would end all funding for Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestine refugees. During the plenary debate, European Commissioner Johannes Hahn said: “Without Unrwa and the prospect of a two-state solution, there would just be chaos and violence for both the Israeli and Palestinian people."



Established in 1949 to take care of Palestinians displaced by the Arab-Israeli war, Unrwa provides essential services for some five million Palestine refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.



The US decision was widely denounced by MEPs. GUE/NGL member and chair of Parliament’s Palestine delegation Neoklis Sylikiotis said: “There are five million refugees who are now suffering because of the US cuts. Eighty per cent of the people of Gaza depend entirely on Unrwa support.”



EPP member José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra said: “This is affecting more than 5.5 million men, women and children whom we can't simply ignore.”



"Strong, reliable and predictable"



During the plenary debate, Commissioner Hahn said the EU would continue to be “strong, reliable and predictable supporters of the agency”. He referred to the €40 million in additional EU funding for Unrwa announced at the UN general assembly on 27 September. The EU and its member states already provide almost half of the agency’s budget and the overall EU contribution amounts to some €1.2 billion over the past three years.