Commission drops support for network of food-relief charities

By David Cronin

Date: 04/11/04

The European Commission has stopped using a network of charities that has been distributing EU food aid to poor countries for more than two decades.

EuronAid, based in The Hague, was set up in 1981 to purchase, transport and manage logistics to provide food in kind for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to alleviate hunger.

The EU executive has decided that it can no longer have such a close relationship with EuronAid, which has received Commission grants of more than €50 million annually.

Until this year, 95% of EuronAid's funding came from the Commission. A now outdated explanation of the relationship with EuronAid, found on the website of EuropeAid, the Commission's external assistance office, states: "EuronAid receives global grants from the Commission (generally annual) and then concludes cooperation and service contracts with the NGOs implementing each project (food aid or food security), on the basis of specific allocations granted by the Commission."

The Commission has decided that the practice of giving grants for EuronAid to implement is not compatible with the financial regulation, which stipulates that "as the Commission is responsible for implementation of the budget, it may not delegate any tasks of public authority involving the use of discretionary powers".

Koos Richelle, who took over as director-general of EuropeAid this year, recently informed several of the Commission's delegations in Africa and Asia that EuronAid must be treated with "complete neutrality as compared to other NGOs".

A Commission spokesman said direct agreements with EuronAid were no longer permitted. "We appreciate the quality of service from EuronAid but they have to submit a proposal for tender and compete alongside other companies," he said.

In the past, as the website makes clear, EuropeAid's line was that "among the non- governmental organizations selected as implementation partners by the European Commission to fulfil its mission, one must make the distinction between EuronAid and the individual NGOs".

EuronAid has been handling €50m-70m from the Commission per year and has had more than 80 employees.

But Gerhard Schmalbruch, EuronAid's secretary-general, said that EuronAid was not receiving any money from the Commission's Food Security Programme for 2004. He said that its field offices in Nicaragua and Afghanistan were likely to be closed because of scarce finances, while its Brussels office was also in jeopardy.

Schmalbruch criticized the Commission for applying the financial regulation in the same way to private sector firms and to non-profit bodies bidding for EU contracts.

"We have a mandate from the people of Europe who donate to our charities so we cannot fall under the same rules as Volkswagen," he said.

Among EuronAid's 42 affiliated groups are well-known relief agencies such as Oxfam and Save the Children.

Earlier this year, several NGOs complained to Development Commissioner Poul Nielson that the "very restrictive" application of the financial regulation was damaging the "efficiency and effectiveness of European aid".

CONCORD, the European NGO confederation for relief and development, argued that the Commission had been giving a higher priority to administrative considerations than "to urgent actions required by field situations and the fight against hunger and poverty".

Nielson and the External Relations Commissioner, Chris Patten, have defended reforms introduced to the EU's external assistance activities. These were partly prompted by allegations made during the previous Commission of Jacques Santer that humanitarian aid earmarked for the former Yugoslavia and Africa's Great Lakes region had been mismanaged.

Article reports that the European Commission decided to stop using a network of charities that had been distributing EU food aid to poor countries for more than two decades. EuronAid, based in The Hague, was set up in 1981 to purchase, transport and manage logistics to provide food in kind for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to alleviate hunger. The European Commission which granted more than € 50 million annually (95% of the NGO's budget) decided that it could no longer have such a close relationship with EuronAid both in terms of neutrality towards NGOs in general and in terms of its own financial regulations which do not allow the delegation of tasks of public authority including discretionary powers.