MEPs demand more cash for poverty-hit ACP states

By David Cronin

Date: 16/03/06

MEPs will next week accuse EU governments of reneging on their pledge to increase substantially aid to the world's poorest countries.

At last December's Brussels summit, the Union's leaders approved a 23 billion euro-package for the European Development Fund (EDF), to be spent in 2008-13. The EDF, which is spread across the 77-country African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bloc, accounts for roughly half of the EU's development aid.

Dutch Socialist MEP Max van den Berg, vice-president of the European Parliament's development committee, is complaining that the agreed sum is _2bn less than the amount recommended by the European Commission.

During a debate set for next Wednesday (22 March), he will argue that this "sizeable reduction" contradicts the promises made by rich nations during 2005 to increase aid to the poor.

In June last year, EU leaders approved a plan to allocate 0.7% of the Union's gross domestic product to official development assistance by 2015.

Van den Berg said that the Council of Ministers should recognise its credibility was adversely affected when it created expectations among ACP countries and then did not deliver on them.

He also voiced concern that the 23bn euro sum could be used to support ACP sugar producers to help them deal with the effects of the reform of the EU's sugar regime and to finance the trade deals or Economic Partnership Agreements currently being negotiated with the bloc. MEPs are arguing that the aid packages in question should be additional to what has been earmarked for the EDF.

In December, the UK presidency argued that the 23bn euro would represent a "substantial increase" on the previous multi-annual EDF, which expires next year.

But a Ghanian diplomat calculated that the 23bn euro sum was about 3bn euro less than what had effectively been allocated to the previous EDF. Although EU governments had agreed in 2000 that the EDF should have 13.5bn euro for its six-year duration, an additional 10bn euro was provided through unspent sums from earlier installations of the fund and 2.2bn euro was awarded to the ACP by the European Investment Bank for 2001-07. The total amount involved, the diplomat said, came to almost 26bn euro.

The Commission is to present its recommendations for the next EDF within the coming months. Louis Michel, the commissioner for development and humanitarian affairs, and his officials are participating in a series of seminars with regional groupings of the ACP on how money should be allocated. The next such seminar is to take place in the Dominican Republic in April.

A spokesman for Michel said that he had made clear that some of the aid would be based on ACP states' track records in tackling corruption and improving governance.

Joanna Maycock from ActionAid said that the EU's pledges on increasing aid were among the most concrete commitments made by donors to poor countries in 2005. A key challenge for this year, she added, would be monitoring if the promises were being honoured.

Article reports on resistance at the European Parliament to a reduction of the budget allocated to the European Development Fund for 2008-2013 under the agreement at the December 2006 European Council. EU leaders had agreed on a multiannual budget which would see the allocations proposed by the European Commission cut by €2bn in spite of earlier pledges to increase development aid. The EDF, which is spread across the 77-country African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bloc, accounts for roughly half of the EU's development aid and is financed through Member States' contributions separate to the Community budget. The European Parliament was to debate the issue on 22 March 2006.