DEVELOPMENT: EU Bows to International Pressure Over Aid

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Jun 3 2003 (IPS) - The European Union has responded to calls from the U.S. and civil society to step-up its humanitarian aid to Africa by pledging more than 2 million euros in financial help to the troubled continent.

The EU and two of its largest member states responded to international pressure by announcing a series of financial packages to fight health and sanitation issues that continue to plague Africa.

As the U.S. and members of civil society groups stepped up pressure on the EU to do more to help development in Africa, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, announced that it will provide 2.3 million euros to help victims of humanitarian crises in Eritrea and the Central African Republic (CAR).

Through its humanitarian office, ECHO, the EU will donate 1.3 million euros to Eritrea to help meet the acute health, nutrition and water needs of drought victims there. The Commission also pledged 1 million euros to the CAR to provide primary and secondary health facilities throughout the war-torn country.

In another significant move this week, France and Germany, two of largest countries in the 15-member EU followed in the Union’s footsteps by increasing the financial assistance they give to Africa.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has granted an additional 215 million euros to fight HIV/ AIDS on the continent, in addition to 300 million euros it has already pledged to international health funds operating there.

French President Jacques Chirac said Paris would also triple its contribution from 50 million euros to 150 million euros. He was confident that the EU would in the future also be prepared to pledge one million dollars to the cause.

The EU’s pledge came as Group of Eight (G8) leaders from the world’s seven most powerful countries and Russia, gathered in the French town of Evian for an annual summit June 1-3.

In the run-up to the summit, G8 leaders faced tough calls from civil society groups politicians and campaigners urged them to realise promises made at last year’s summit, ”to promote peace and security in Africa” and to increase aid to Africa.

Amnesty International urged members to ”liberate the people of Africa, while Oxfam insisted that ”action now is more vital than ever”.

But in spite of the pledges made by the EU, aid charities have already dismissed the summit for its lack of progress on tackling global poverty.

Development charities said the G8 had failed to deliver despite being billed as a meeting where Africa would dominate the agenda. ”The G8 was big on good intentions, feeble on action,” said George Gelber of the Roman Catholic aid agency, Cafod.

The EU’s pledge followed tough questions from the U.S., who on Monday increased its own contribution to the AIDS battle by one billion dollars annually.

On Monday European Commission President, Romano Prodi, dismissed a pledge by the U.S. to boost AIDS spending, saying that the EU had already doled out more money to fight the disease than Washington.

Last month, the U.S. pledged 15 billion dollars to combat AIDS in Africa over the next five years and, speaking in Krakow, Poland, Saturday, President Bush urged the European partners to ”match America’s commitment”.

However, this request was dismissed by Prodi on the first day of the summit.

”We are giving more than that, so I had no difficulties saying we’d match that – or even do better,” the former Italian premier said.

The United States currently spends 0.12 per cent of GDP on aid, roughly half the EU amount of 0.23 per cent, the world’s largest donor of development aid. Last year the EU’s AIDS contribution amounted to 137 million euros.

Of the seven G8 members – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, three – France, Germany and Italy – are also EU members.

Africa today faces a crisis of massive proportions. 300 million people live on less than one dollar a day, more than 28 million people live with HIV/AIDS, 40 per cent of children receive no primary education, and 200 million people are malnourished.