BRUSSELS: European Union aid to low income countries was almost halved over the past decade, an independent report claims.
The report by BOND, a network of more than 240 British non- governmental organisations (NGOs) claims that European Union (EU) aid to low income countries decreased from 70 per cent of its total development assistance in 1990 to just 39 per cent in 2000.
The findings in the report ‘Tackling Poverty: a proposal for European Union aid reform’ were immediately challenged by Poul Neilson, the EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian aid. Aid to the poorest had not decreased, he said.
“Our development policy is global and many of the states we give aid to are among the poorest in the world,” he said.
Neilson told IPS that he had not read the BOND report but that “we will no doubt have to correct it, as we always do.”
The BOND report claims that the stated aim of EU development policy is to “reduce and, eventually, to eradicate poverty” but that this goal is “increasingly dwarfed by other agendas, such as trade, agriculture, foreign and security policies.”
The report says that funding investment in Europe’s ‘near abroad’ — the middle income countries in the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe — may be in the interests of EU member states, “but it does not constitute poverty-focused developmental aid.”
The report has been endorsed by NGOs from Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Finland. The report will be the focus of a new campaign to “safeguard” EU development policy. The NGOs will campaign for 70 per cent of the aid administered by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, to be directed again to lower income countries.
The report states that “the ineffective use of EU taxpayers money and badly needed funds for development should be a matter of public concern across Europe and in developing countries.” It says dwindling funds for development are not targeted at the poor people that need them most.
The report claims that in 2000 the EU allocated only 4 per cent of its aid to basic education and just 2 per cent to basic health. The new campaign will propose that 35 per cent of EU aid go to social services such as health and education.
The report was released ahead of a meeting of the 15 EU development ministers Thursday. The ministers agreed that “health is a key determinant of economic growth and sustainable development, and that ill health is both a cause and effect of poverty.”
The ministers said in a resolution that “donors must significantly increase the volume of their financial support to the health sector, particularly in the poorest countries.”
Poul Neilson who is in charge of aid administered by the EC told ministers that aid reform is progressing well. The 15 EU countries also have their separate aid programmes.
Mirjam van Reisen, author of the BOND report, says the reform process has been misguided by the question of who controls the money — rather than where and how it is most effectively spent.
“We call upon Europe’s ministers for development when they eat their Saumon en Couronne to remember that they were elected to promote the prospects for a better life for all the people around the world who live in poverty,” Reisen said. “This is a heavy responsibility, and a shared responsibility.”
The BOND report argues that European development funds have been diverted to restore stability in the Balkans and to help former Soviet countries join the EU. Neilson says “accession countries and the Balkans region should be kept out of this discussion.”
Gary Collins, an EU official working on aid to the Balkans, says “it is unrealistic to expect the EU to ignore its near abroad. After the enlargement of the EU, these countries will become our neighbours. There have been three wars in the Balkans and there is a great need for stability there. There are also very many poor people in these regions.”—Dawn/InterPress News Service.