/CORRECTION/DEVELOPMENT-EU: Aid Target Debate Divides EU States

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Greta Hopkins

BRUSSELS, Mar 12 2002 (IPS) - Activists fear that European leaders may go to the United Nations Financing for Development conference in Monterrey, Mexico March 18-22, without any concrete promises to raise aid levels.

But the European Union (EU) Presidency, led by Spain, still hopes that a last ditch attempt to broker a compromise deal between the 15 member states of the EU could bear fruit.

The Spanish Presidency of the EU, which runs until July this year, has proposed a compromise which it hopes can be agreed upon in time for the EU summit in Barcelona this weekend. But NGOs only expect EU leaders to deliver a “strongly worded, light on substance statement” at the Barcelona meeting.

The compromise proposed by the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, Josep Piqué, says that all countries that have not reached the UN target of devoting 0.7 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to development aid, should individually undertake to increase the level over the next four years, within the limits set by their budgetary constraints.

Josep Pique said that EU Foreign Affairs Ministers held a “high quality and intense debate” on raising aid levels during a meeting on Monday. He insisted that the Ministers had “made progress” towards reaching an agreement, especially as the member states came from such different starting points.

Pique pointed out that that the EU and its member states are still by far the biggest donor, giving more than 50 percent of global development aid.

Speaking for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, Poul Nielson, said that there had been progress “in our effort to put together a global deal”.

The European Commission proposes that EU countries that allocate less than 0.33 percent of their GDP to official development assistance should reach this percentage by 2006 as an interim step to reaching the 0.7 percent goal. But the proposal, which would take the EU average from 0.33 percent to 0.39 percent, has divided member states.

“We hope to get a final closure on this before Monterrey, and the work of the Presidency has brought this forward,” said Nielson, the EU Commissioner responsible for development. Nielson insisted that it is important to have tangible progress on ODA before the Financing for Development Conference, but reminded critics that the debate on common EU aid targets has only just begun.

But Non Governmental Organisations, NGOs, are unimpressed by talks of progress. “How can EU governments attend a conference about financing development without doing anything to address the decline in aid levels to the world’s poorest developing countries?” asked Louise Hilditch from the United Kingdom based Action Aid.

“All the EU’s rhetoric on ethical globalisation counts for nothing if we fail to deliver at Monterrey. The EU’s current stance will not raise a single cent for poor people the world-over. The result will be a travesty,” said Hilditch.

The NGOs reserved their strongest condemnation for Germany, and other Member States such as Greece, Spain, Austria and Italy, that give well below the EU average.

These countries would prefer the EU to reiterate its call for a “sizable increase” in aid rather than commit to specific timetables. They also argue that more attention should be given to how the aid is spent, rather than the amount of aid.

Jenny Ross, from British Overseas NGOs for Development (BOND), said: “Where is the international coalition against poverty? Shame on governments like Germany and Spain that stall on raising aid”.

The German delegation notes that it would have to increase its ODA by 22 percent if it were to reach the EU average of 0.3 percent, a very large sum of money considering the size of the German budget.

German and Austrian officials say that the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is not coherent in its call to raise German aid levels, at the same time as criticising the German government for spending too much.

But Germany is now the only EU Member State blocking a common EU calendar for reaching aid targets.

“Germany may be experiencing economic troubles at home but, as elsewhere, it is aid budgets that suffer disproportionately and that is unfair. Tackling the extreme poverty, crisis and conflict in developing countries demands real investment and reform, not more photo opportunities and more fine words,” said Ross.

The Spanish Presidency compromise is also opposed by the four EU Member States that already give 0.7 percent of their budgets or more for development (Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Luxembourg), because it is too weak.

“Demark has done a lot for development over many years and it is now an appropriate time for the others to move as well. But now they (Germany) say their aid budgets cannot be increased due to budgetary constraints,” said a Danish official.

Demark currently gives 1.06 percent of its budget for development, but a recent proposal from the center-right government could reduce this to one percent.

The Netherlands wants the EU to commit to the 0.7 percent target by 2010. “If we aim for an EU average of 0.39 percent by 2006, we will only reach the 0.7 percent target by 2026. We have to go faster than this,” a Dutch official told IPS.

“The Germans cannot even agree on going to 0.7 percent. Our position is a very long way from theirs,” said the Dutch official.

Anders Ericson, a Swedish spokesman, said that Sweden is not entirely happy with the Presidency proposal either.

“We would like timetables and intermediary goals in the text. We think there should be incentives for those countries that have reached the UN target to stay there. But there should also be a strong incentives for those countries below the 0.7 percent threshold. We don’t think that a target for an EU average will contribute to that, national timetables are needed,” he said.