Brussels, 06/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - Whatever you do, don't cut development aid and humanitarian aid expenditure, this would be poor savings and would harm the most impoverished populations! This is the call of the MEPs on the development committee of the European Parliament - across all groups - who are calling on the European Council to reject Hermann Van Rompuy's proposal to trim 13% from heading 4, “External relations” (€60.67 billion instead of the €70 billion proposed by the Commission) and 11% from the envelope of the EDF (€26.9 billion instead of €30.3 billion). “The aid expenditure of the EU costs each European citizen just €0.50 a week. Any agreement on the multi-annual financial perspectives should protect this investment, which represents just 6% of the total budget and has a significant impact. Over the last five years, it has helped 10 million children to receive primary education and 32 million people to have access to drinking water”, these members of the European Parliament stress. (AN/transl.fl)