By IPS Correspondents
BRUSSELS, Feb 17 2004 (IPS)

Development cooperation could get downgraded in the next EU budget, civil society groups warn.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union (EU), proposes to spend just over 1.2 billion dollars in the 2007-2013 period, rising from 200 billion dollars in 2007 to 235 billion dollars in 2013.

The EU receives most of this money from member states (73.4 percent), with income from value added tax (14.1 percent), custom duties (10.4 percent) and agricultural duties (1.3 percent). The balance comes from minor contributions.

The budget is subdivided into seven categories – agriculture, structural measures, internal policies, external action, administrative procedure, reserves and pre-accession aid.

The Commission says budgetary spending will reflect its commitment to the millennium development goals agreed by the United Nations in 2000.

"The enlarged Union must play a greater role, as regional leader as well as a global partner, " Commission president Romana Prodi said at the launch of the budget last week. "To meet these expectations implies developing the EU into a politically responsible actor capable of punching its weight."

The Commission has proposed a budget of 14.6 billion dollars for 2007 for "the EU as a global partner", with 20.1 billion dollars earmarked for 2013. This includes the budget for development support to other countries.

Detailed figures on where this money will be spent has not been published. But the Commission has indicated that the only component that would need increased resources is security.

The Commission says it would like Europe to respond to "fundamental threats: terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, failed states, internal and regional conflicts."

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are concerned that additional money will be spent on strategic security and not on development cooperation and humanitarian aid.

"Europe’s growing external responsibilities have to be matched with an increase in the money allocated to development cooperation," says Simon Stocker, director of Eurostep, a Brussels-based network of NGOs.

"If we want to tackle the root causes of the so called fundamental threats and respond to the 63 percent of Europeans calling for an increase in EU development aid, an increased budget for poverty eradication is crucial," he said in a note following the Commission’s proposals.

Civil society groups say the Commission is giving priority to areas such as agriculture, with more than 384 billion dollars proposed for the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) under which farmers are given subsidies. Stocker says this goes against what the Commission says it will do for development.

"It makes no sense to maintain high export subsidies on agricultural products, which leads to dumping in the developing world whereas Europe tries to be a responsible actor with a coherent development strategy aiming at eradicating poverty," he said.

Stocker says the EU is "promoting itself in an ideological fashion through a technical paper", and so giving a false impression to European citizens.

This would be damaging in the long run, he says. "It gives insufficient space for the plurality of views existing among European citizens on the role that Europe should play internally and externally."

The budget proposal speaks of development cooperation and humanitarian aid as crucial elements of EU’s external relations together with trade, enlargement and relations with neighbouring countries, but NGOs are concerned that the proposal does not set out any coherence between these policies to achieve development objectives.

"Instead of this the emphasis is put on the fact that Europe’s trade policy should promote ‘open and competitive markets’ all over the world and the money allocated to the fight against ‘fundamental threats’ should be increased," says Stocker.

Ministers will present their proposals on the budget after the new European parliament is elected in June. An agreement will be reached by heads of government or state at meetings of the European Council in December and in June next year.

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