Ministers back higher foreign aid spending despite EU fiscal woes

European ministers from the bloc's 27 countries urged their governments on Tuesday (25 June) to live up to their commitments on development aid, saying it was essential to support Europe’s promises to reduce world poverty, even at times of austerity.

The support for spending 0.7% of gross national income on development assistance came in a broad package of proposals to support EU and United Nations’ efforts to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development.

The national ministers, who were meeting in Luxembourg for the General Affairs Council, said the EU would play a leading role in supporting a successor to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the eight poverty-fighting targets that are nearing the end of their 15-year run.

Aid campaigners have also pressed the EU and its member states not to retreat on their promises to spend more of the national income to help impoverished nations despite Europe’s own fiscal challenges.

Eloise Todd, Brussels director for the ONE charity group, said she was particularly worried about aid hitting the world’s poorest region, sub-Saharan Africa. A provisional analysis of aid spending by the organisation showed that 14 of 15 EU countries trimmed aid to sub-Saharan Africa in 2012.

“We have come a long way in so many sub-Saharan countries, and not to sustain this effort now, when we are on the cusp of trying to achieve the MDGs, would be a waste,” Todd told EURACTIV in an interview.

“Investing in development is not only about charity, or moral reasons, that’s one element of it, but it’s also about our own economic interest. Development in sub-Saharan Africa is good for us, because it helps build markets and productivity. But most importantly, it saves lives,” she said.

Mary Robinson, the former Irish president who is now the UN special envoy to Africa’s Great Lakes region, also has expressed concern about declining aid support. “I see the cutbacks particularly for women’s groups in countries because of the reduction of development assistance,” she told EURACTIV in a recent interview. 

‘Key priority’

The General Affairs Council, which coordinates work ahead of EU summit meetings, said the 0.7% target is “a key priority for member states” but indicated in a statement that national governments had other fiscal challenges.

“The EU and its member states reaffirm all their individual and collective [aid] commitments, taking into account the exceptional budgetary circumstances,” the statement said.

In 2005, the EU’s main donor nations committed to providing 0.7% of gross national income to development assistance by 2015. Four exceeded the target, figures from the Organisation for Econommic Co-operation and Development show, but most others are lagging behind.

The Council, meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday, also threw its weight behind the Commission’s “Decent Life for All” communication, which maps out the EU’s support for future efforts to reduce global poverty.

Ministers pledged the EU “to play a full and active role in the work to define the post-2015 framework” that is still being drafted but is likely to focus on promoting both poverty-reduction and sustainable development.

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