EU's Borrell highlights Kingdom's custodianship over holy sites in Jerusalem

AMMAN — EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell on Saturday stressed the importance of the Hashemite custodianship over Jerusalem's Islamic and Christian holy sites and its "remarkable" role in preserving these sanctities.

In an interview with the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Borrell referred to the Kingdom as a “major” factor of stability in the region.

He added that the Kingdom’s “important” role to create regional peace and stability is “appreciated and supported” by the European Union. He referred to the continuous coordination, talks and meetings between the sides to serve this end.

He said that the European Union and Jordan signed an association agreement in 2002 and the Kingdom was the first Mediterranean partner country to conclude technical negotiations, which led to Amman's "advanced status" with the EU in 2010.

At the economic level, Borrell said that the EU is Jordan's “largest” trade partner, accounting for 14.7 per cent of its trade in 2020.

He noted that in 2020, 20.6 per cent of Jordan's imports came from the bloc and 2.1 per cent of Jordan's exports went to EU markets.

Borrell announced that the total trade in goods between Jordan and the EU amounted to 3.4 billion euros in 2020.

Jordan and the EU have a “strong” mutual partnership, as the Kingdom was the first country in the bloc's southern neighbourhood to sign the new partnership priorities, he added.

In addition, he referred to the talks held at the Dead Sea on Thursday, which reflected the "distinguished relations, solid partnership and ongoing friendship between the two sides".

Highlighting the partnership priorities with Jordan for the upcoming years, he said it is based on the “key sectors” of regional stability and security, including combating terrorism and economic stability, which are important for achieving political stability, strengthening and promoting good governance, democratic reforms and human rights.

He noted that the EU will support regional cooperation and renewable energy development, such as through promoting energy efficiency and water resource management, and will provide support to pump water from the Red Sea to Amman in a project within the European Investment Plan.

Borrell also pointed out that the EU and its members over the past few years have offered Jordan some 841 million euros to help the Kingdom face the health, social and economic repercussions of the pandemic, where medical equipment and training were provided and more than 430,000 vaccines were secured for Jordan through the COVAX platform.

He also said that Jordanian-EU bilateral allocations for 2021-2024 stand at 364 million euros, where support will be directed to support the Kingdom's green and digital transformation and to address unemployment, mainly among the youth and women.

The EU official also highlighted the importance of the investment platform that was launched between Jordan and the EU on Thursday, which can be utilised for investments worth 2.5 billion euros.

Borrell stressed the EU's support to Jordan to help the country alleviate the impacts and ramifications of the Russian-Ukrainian war, noting that the Kingdom will receive 25 million euros in support from the “Food and Resilience Facility” aimed to support the Southern neighbourhood partners and an additional 24 million euros to expand social protection for the Kingdom’s vulnerable populations.