Summary: Additional €60m for DRC elections approved by EU Commission (10 November 2005: Brussels)
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The European Commission adopted a €60 million financing decision for the "Electoral Process Support Programme", already in receipt of an initial allocation of €89 million in 2004.
The total cost of the electoral process over the transition period in the DRC is put at €265.3 million, excluding logistic expenses. This decision brings the European Commission's total contribution to €149 million. This is the most aid ever granted for elections in a non-member country and bolsters the EC's support for the transition to democracy.
This additional amount includes a budget of €38.5 million for the electoral process as such and €16 million for security, the remainder being set aside for contingencies. The decision demonstrates the EU's political commitment to the electoral process. These will be first free and democratic elections in the DRC for 40 years. Congo has suffered the gradual, almost total collapse of the state and its administrative structures, several years of civil war and the carve-up of the
national territory, all of which has led to decayed infrastructure and a fragile socio-economic fabric.
This contribution will be financed under the DRC's 9th EDF national indicative programme and had already been announced by the European Commissioner, Mr Louis Michel, at the donors' meeting organised on 11 July by the European Commission and MONUC, the United Nations Mission in the DRC. With the new commitments made by the international partners at that meeting, the financing of the electoral process is wrapped up.
Louis Michel was "pleased to announce this fresh contribution from Community funds, further aid which underpins the evident success of the voter registration campaign currently under way, which to date has already registered 20,5 million potential voters. "
Louis Michel was able to see this operation - unprecedented in the history of the Congo - for himself on his last visit when he toured several regions at the end of August. "This massive turnout at the registration centres which I saw with my own eyes is clear proof of the Congolese people's determination to have free and democratic elections so that they can finally turn the page on war, abuse and corruption, and start reinstalling the rule of law on which the country's prosperity can be
rebuilt", he said.
The European Commission also welcomes the draft electoral law recently sent to parliament, which provides for the introduction of a proportional system.
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