EUBAM Rafah downsizes
(BRUSSELS2) The monitoring mission at the Rafah border point (EUBAM Rafah) between the Gaza Strip and Egypt will reduce its activities. It has been almost five years - at the end of 2007 - that the mission suspended its operations. It could not be redeployed after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip. We had hoped for a moment that it might be after the reconciliation process started between Fatah and Hamas. It couldn't be.
Several options have thus been studied for a few months: the closure of the mission, its merger with Eupol Copps, the appointment of the same leader for the two missions (with double hat), its maintenance in the current format. A middle way was chosen: the mission keeps a certain autonomy with a head of mission but sees its staff reduced to 4 people including the head of mission, a customs expert, a border expert. The mandate is retained in full. That " allows the European Union to maintain the achievements of the agreement and to remain ready in the event of redeployment at the Rafah crossing point, if the political and security conditions allow it” explains a connoisseur of the file. On the other hand, its budget has been reduced: the headquarters in particular have been transferred from Ashkelon to Tel Aviv - to the headquarters of the Delegation of the European Union -. This allows some very useful savings today when other missions are about to be deployed in Africa (see also: Three missions being deployed). The budget for the mission was thus established at less than one million euros (980.000 euros) until June 2013.
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