The European Union has given Somalia 158 million Euros (US$200 million) to support the new Somali government's effort to improve education, its legal system and security.

The EU's special envoy to Somalia, Michele Cervone d'Urso, announced on Saturday (November 3rd) that the EU development aid package was aimed at strengthening the judiciary, the Somali police force and the country's education system and assisting weak state institutions. He said the new government of Somalia was "finally rebuilding the systems of a functional state at local, regional and central levels" after 21 years. He expressed EU's readiness and commitment "to work directly and in partnership with Somalis", and "ask the implementing agencies to work more closely with the government and civil society."

Some of the funds will be used to bring home Somali professionals abroad to help improve educational standards. The new President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has said his new government has requested the world to increase funds and "change the ways Somalia has been getting funds in the last two decades." He has called for partners to have a direct relationship with Somalia, and to provide more aid which, he said, should be "channeled directly through the new government".