Pakistan, EU sign financing agreements worth €65m

Pakistan and the European Union signed financing agreements worth €65 million on Monday, according to Dawn, citing a statement from the Economic Affairs Division (EAD). The deals, roughly $75 million, are meant to back investment under the Global Gateway initiative, advance legal standards and the commercial climate, and bolster energy and environmental resilience. Ambassador Raimundas Karoblis of the EU and Economic Affairs Division secretary Muhammad Humair Karim signed on behalf of their sides.

The €65 million, about Rs20.64bn, will finance three separate programmes. The first, Global Gateway Development Facilitation for Pakistan, aims to draw foreign capital by refining the tax regime and strengthening long-term government financial planning. The second scheme expands renewable energy to rural communities off the electricity grid in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), alongside training to draw private investors into the provincial energy sector.

The third programme builds on earlier EU aid and covers access to police, prosecutors, courts and legal aid in KP and Balochistan. In Punjab and Sindh, the support will expand out-of-court ways of settling commercial disputes, aiming to attract European and other companies to those provinces. According to the division, the bloc's development ties with Pakistan centre on economic growth, climate resilience, governance, the rule of law, human rights and the sustainable use of natural resources.