Changes to EU aid distribution under attack

Date: 26/06/03

By David Cronin

A PLAN to shift the basis on which EU aid is given to Asia and Latin America has come under fire.

MEPs are currently examining the European Commission proposal to bring this aid, worth €3.8 billion in 2003-2006, within the chapter of the Union's budget covering external relations, rather than development. This would mean that the aid should not just be targeted at the eradication of poverty, but tailored towards such strategies as the fight against terrorism and immigration control.

Mirjam van Reisen, who has conducted analyses of EU development policy for several charities, considers the move a backward step. She feels that if this principle is accepted for the 2004 EU budget it would mean the Union's development policy is only oriented towards the African, Caribbean and Pacific bloc.

"There is an increasing tendency to focus Europe's aid on the "old camp" in Africa," said van Reisen. "We have long passed the old colonial days and should not return to those concepts now. Europe deserves a development policy that is based on international principles, particularly the [UN's] Millennium Development Goals [targets for poverty reduction], with a clear focus on poverty eradication."

That principle, she added, is enshrined in the EU's treaties and is contained in the draft constitution produced by the future of Europe Convention. "We cannot accept development resources being used as a blank cheque for Europe's foreign policy. If there is to be a European Foreign Minister, the common foreign and security policy budget lines will have to provide an adequate budget for activities within this domain."

But MEP Marieke Sanders, who has drawn up a report on aid to Asia and Latin America for the European Parliament's development committee, said she had been given an assurance from the Commission that its proposal was simply a matter of reorganization. "If that is the case, there is nothing wrong with it," the deputy remarked.

"But I will certainly make sure this is the case."

Proposals to shift aid to Latin America and Asia from the chapter of the EU's budget concerning development to that of external relations have come under attack from several charities.