The minister of state and for foreign affairs and president of the Council of the European Union, Luís Amado, will participate tomorrow, Monday, 17 December, in the Palestine Donors Conference that supports the Palestinian Authority, which will be held in Paris and will be co-presided by France, Norway (the country that presides in the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee) and the European Commission, besides the Quartet Representative, Tony Blair.

The Paris Donors Conference, which will be opened by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is fundamental for the Palestinians, who are trying to establish a medium term strategy to reinforce public institutions. This is a grand opportunity to mobilise additional funds and to support the political process, namely the Palestinian Plan for Development and Reform, prepared by the government and presided by the Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad.

At the Paris Donors Conference around 90 delegations will be present, among which there will be the participants of the Annapolis Conference, all the EU Member States (the biggest donors), the UN and several regional and international economic and /or financial organisations: the Palestinian Authority, the UN secretary general, whose delegation will include the respective agencies, South Africa, Germany, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Cyprus, Denmark, UAE, Egypt, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, USA, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Yemen, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Oman, the Netherlands, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Singapore, Syria, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Venezuela, European Union, the presidency of the EU Council SG/AR for CFSP, the European Parliament, the Arab League, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the World Bank, the IMF, the European Investment Bank, the Islamic Bank for Development, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Development, the Saudi Fund for the Development and the OPEC.

At the margin of this Conference there will be a Quartet meeting, at a ministerial level, followed by a work diner with the Quartet and the group of the Suivi Committee of the Arab League, at the Portuguese Embassy in Paris, which, besides the Quartet members – UNSG, USA, Russia, EU-Portuguese presidency MSFA, Luís Amado, Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and HR Javier Solana – and Representative of T. Blair -, will also have the following participants: Secretary-general of the Arab League – Amr M. MOUSSA; and the Saudi Arabian ministers for foreign affairs – Prince Saud AL-FAISAL; from Bahrain – Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed AL-KHALIFA; from Egypt – Ahmed Aboul GHEIT; from Jordan – Salah BASHIR; from Morocco – Taieb FASSI-FIHRI; from Qatar – Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir AL-THAMI; from Syria – Walid MOALLEN; and from the UAE – Sheikh Abdallah bin Zaiyd AL-NUHAYYAN