Folks,

It is with great pleasure and joy that I am sharing with you yet another wonderful occassion. With these new grants from only one source, the EU and spread over five years, the APRC will continue to make giant strides towards the development of our dear country. You know what that means, don't you? It means that the APRC's popularity would continue to escalate will further consolidate its hold on power. Our quest to develop this country is looking more and more likely. The first republic is dead, long live the new Gambia.

Have a good day, Gassa.

From the office of the EU in The Gambia.

The office of the European commission is pleased to announce that M Georges-Marc Andre, the European Commission Charge d'Affaires in The Gambia, has resumed his duty following an absence of several weeks.

"In order to respond to a number of questions generated by this long absence, The European Commission can indicate that during this period, M Andre had been working with his colleagues in Brussels on The Gambia's Country Strategy Paper and its 9th EDF National Indicative Programme, which will guide the co-operation between The Gambia and The European Community for the five years to come. It should be recalled that the new financial envelope, which The Gambia should benefit from, amounts at this stage, to 51 million Euro, equivalent to 810 million Dalasis, all in the form of grants.

In accordance with the Cotonou Partnership Agreement signed in June 2000 and ratified by tThe Gambia in January 2002, the Country Strategy Paper and the National Indicative Programme have been elaborated through a thorough consultation process, which has involved Government officials and a panel of representative from the civil society and the private sector. Focussing on poverty alleviation, the future EU support to The Gambia will concentrate on rural development and transport, with a view to supporting national development and regional integration. further resources in grant aid from the 9th EDF Regional Indicative Programme should also come in support to regional integration in coherance with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

In order to further enhance the quality and accelerate the implementation of its co-opeartion, the European Commission has recently decided to deconcentrate most of its development activities in a number of regional delegations. This will bring closer to beneficiaries, technical and administrative capacities as well as decision makers that were until now based in the European Commission in The Gambia.

Before resuming full duty M Andre worked with his colleagues in Dakar for four weeks to ensure that The Gambia benefits rapidly from these administrative provisions.

Whilst in these last years the European Community's support has consistently increased with payments in favour of The Gambia escalating on a yearly basis from 2.1 million Euro (33.4 million Dalasis) in 1996 to 8.7 million Euro (138.3 million dalasis) in 2000, the European Commission is convinced that with a common understanding of the principles enshrined in the Cotonou Partnership Agreement, the forthcoming implementation of the 9th EDF and the new administrative provisions in place, our co-operation will be able to reach new summits.