Press Release: Commission offers fresh support for the electoral process in Iraq

As EU leaders prepared to meet the Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi at the European Council on 5 November 2004, the European Commission was setting out the details of a €31.5 million package to support election activities in Iraq. Most of this sum was supposed to be channelled through the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq. However, the European Commission also planned to fund a number of additional activities to support the election process. These included European election experts working with the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq and the United Nations in Baghdad, and the training of Iraqi election observers. The package, which included €16.5 million of fresh money, brought the Commission's total contribution to Iraq in 2003-2004 to almost €320 million.