International aid coalition says EU falling behind in its aid pledges
International Herald Tribune
May 22, 2008
European Union nations will fall $117.3 billion short of their aid promises to the world's poorest nations by 2010, if they don't agree to binding spending increases, according to a coalition of aid groups.
The anti-poverty groups — which include Oxfam International, ActionAid and CARE International — urged the 27-nation bloc on Wednesday to heed their warning or risk denting its credibility as the world's top aid donor.
"A hundred thousand estimated dead in Burma, food prices rocketing and a woman dying every minute in pregnancy or childbirth. Now more than ever, European governments must deliver the aid they promised to the world's poor," said Justin Kilcullen, president of CONCORD, which represents the alliance of 1,600 international aid groups and networks from 22 nations.
The aid organizations appealed to the EU to stop inflating its aid statistics and to agree to a rigorous annual timetable by which it can meet aid goals.
The EU's multibillion aid policies are up for review by the bloc's foreign ministers next week and come after senior EU officials themselves acknowledged that EU nations were falling behind pledges.
A report issued by the alliance of aid groups said that costs to cover debt relief and payments to cover housing of refugee claimants in Europe should not be included in official development aid figures, as many EU nations have done.
The alliance argues that such assistance is not new aid and should not be included as such.
"Figures provided in recent years were distorted and over-flattering," the report said. "The official figures still fail to provide citizens with a true picture of their government's contribution."
The report said that in 2007, EU nations spent around €8 billion (US$12.5 billion) in what aid groups claim to be non-aid items, €5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of which was on canceling debts of poor countries.
"On current trends, the EU will have given €75 billion less between 2005 and 2010 than was promised," it added. The report pointed to France, Germany, Greece, Austria, Italy and Portugal as the worst culprits of inflating official assistance figures last year.
Louis Michel, the EU's Development Aid commissioner, has warned EU nations to redouble efforts to increase their assistance to poor countries to meet promises they made to halve extreme poverty around the world by 2015.
Statistics last month showed that the EU as a whole slipped below 2006 aid levels last year for the first time since it committed itself in 2000 to raising aid spending on a yearly basis.
The 27 EU nations spent 0.38 percent of their gross national income on development aid in 2007, compared with 0.41 percent in 2006. That amounted to €47.7 billion (US$74.6 billion) in 2006 and €46.1 billion (US$72.1 billion) in 2007.
The targets, agreed to by EU nations and other international donors at the United Nations in 2000, represented major commitments to halve extreme poverty by 2015, among other aims.
They promised to set aside at least 0.5 percent of gross national income to fund development aid by 2010 and 0.7 percent by 2015, to meet U.N. targets.
