Commission issues anti-terror aid pledge

The European Commission has assured the European Parliament that development money will not be used to fund anti-terrorism measures in developing countries.

The promise was made during a hearing in the Parliament’s development committee last week following concern over early drafts of Commission plans for Asian and Latin American countries which made references to funding counter-terrorism in Malaysia, Pakistan, Colombia and Indonesia.

A struggle between Parliament and the Commission last year over the legal basis for development co-operation finally resulted in agreement that development money would not fund such programmes. The Commission explained that early drafts before the agreement was reached made reference to counter-terrorism but that these would now be removed.

Margrietus van den Berg, a Dutch Socialist MEP and a vice-chairman of the development committee, said the Commission plans would be scrutinised to ensure that it was not just terminology that was changed in updated drafts. "If they now want to do the same kind of funding but use other words then we will scrutinise this and take formal procedures," he said.

"If on the other hand they change it we will be satisfied," van den Berg said.

He said the four committee working groups examining the papers would send questions in to the Commission after receiving expert analysis and legal advice. "If there is a possible breach of the DCI [development co-operation instrument] we will go to plenary," he added.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are also carefully analysing the papers. "Country strategy papers need to be consistent with combating poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The use of funds needs to conform with normal accepted guidelines," said Simon Stocker, director of Eurostep, an umbrella organisation for several NGOs.

He added that he was also concerned that insufficient emphasis and funding was going towards healthcare. No mention of HIV/AIDS was made in the programme for Cambodia, where 2.6% of the adult population is infected with the virus, the highest rate of infection in Asia.

A spokeswoman for the Commission said the EU was not the lead donor on healthcare in Cambodia but was on education. "Not all donors are addressing the same issues. There is a division of labour between the donors," she said.

The European Commission has assured the European Parliament that development money will not be used to fund anti-terrorism measures in developing countries.