EU SEEKS MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PAKISTAN DONORS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 001796 SIPDIS FOR SCA/PB E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/25/2018 TAGS: EAID ECON EFIN IBRD IMC PK SUBJECT: EU SEEKS MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PAKISTAN DONORS CONFERENCE IN MID-DECEMBER REF: SECSTATE 124618 Classified By: Political Officer Marisa Plowden, for reasons 1.4 (b) an d (d) ¶1. (C) Political Officer spoke with European Commission RELEX Head of Unit for Afghanistan and Pakistan David Tirr and Desk Officer for Pakistan Heino Marius on November 26 concerning reftel demarche. Tirr said that the Commission would like additional information before making any decisions regarding the conference. He noted that the Commission needed to be prepared to respond to questions from member states. Tirr said that the Commission was taken by surprise by the fast-approaching date proposed for the donors conference. He explained that it would take several weeks for the Commission to pull together a potential package to offer at a conference. He also expressed doubt over whether a Commissioner would be able to attend on such short notice. ¶2. (C) On substance, Tirr said that it was not the Commission's impression that so much additional donor funding ($4 billion) was needed for Pakistan, on top of the $7.6 billion stand-by arrangement with the Government of Pakistan. He asked for more information regarding the assumption that the IMF funding would be inadequate. He said member states were likely to ask why the IMF had not provided more money if, as our demarche said, "without this additional assistance from the donor community, Pakistan is unlikely to be able to implement the IMF program successfully." Tirr also called into question the prudence of providing so much additional funding before Pakistan was in a position to implement the conditionality of the IMF loan. Tirr said that the Commission would appreciate additional information from Washington regarding these concerns. The Commission is also intersted in any information we can share with them regarding reactions from other potential donor countries. Finally, Tirr noted that if there were broad consensus in the Friends of Pakistan group about going forward with a donor's conference, the Commission would be amenable. ¶3. (C) ACTION REQUEST: Given this level of initial resistance from a major potential donor, post urgently requests additional information to respond to these questions from the Commission. SILVERBERG .