Brussels, 21/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - Selection of countries eligible for EU development aid must not be made solely in terms of income per inhabitant, as suggested by the European Commission for post-2013, explained the European Parliament's Development Committee on Wednesday 19 September 2012 in a vote on EP amendments to the European Commission's draft legislation on the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI), the biggest EU external action fund, which will have a budget of €23.3 billion under the draft 2014-2020 budget. The committee, chaired by Eva Joly (Greens/EFA, France) voted by an overwhelming majority (23 to 0 with 1 abstention) in favour of the amendments, which set the negotiating mandate for informal talks with the Council of Ministers on the new DCI regulation (expected to be adopted by December 2013).
The European Parliament rapporteur, Thijs Berman (S&D, the Netherlands) said in a press release that the Parliament wants to ensure that the focus goes on the poorest countries and the poorest people, but GDP alone does not reflect the true level of poverty in a country. Changes in wealth should be considered as well.
The committee is calling for: (1) problems connected with poverty and inequality to be taken into account in countries in the upper section with intermediate revenue as shown by indicators such as human development indices, poverty gaps or the percentage of people living in the poverty trap (which would enable Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to continue to be eligible for EU aid); (2) transition periods for ending aid programmes for specific countries and the use of DCI funds to implement special programmes during the transition period for tax and social protection systems, good governance, human rights and civil society; the phasing out of aid should be accompanied by political dialogue with the countries in question, based on the needs of the poorest and vulnerable sections of the population; (3) the EP to have the right to influence important decisions on the allocation and distribution of aid in specific countries and the right to veto the Commission's strategic planning decisions; and (4) aid to combat climate change to be kept separate from development aid in order to avoid the fight against poverty being sidelined. (AN/transl.fl)