Brussels, 21/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is the world' largest donor of official development aid (ODA) and MEPs, in a resolution adopted by a wide majority (582 votes to 79, with 28 abstentions) in Strasbourg on Tuesday 19 May, expect it to set an example to the international community for development funding after 2015.
This non-binding but politically strong resolution urges the EU and its member states to respect the commitment they made collectively to allocate 0.7% of EU GNI (gross national income) to official development aid and to set a timetable for reaching it by 2020. Half of this aid and at least 0.2% of member states' GNI should be earmarked for least-developed countries (LDCs), Parliament says - a demand made all the more important since, according to the latest preliminary OECD report on development aid figures, bilateral aid to the world's poorest countries fell by 16% last year (see EUROPE 11290).
MEPs call for this goal, initially agreed in 2005 to be achieved in 2015, to be restated before the third UN conference on development financing scheduled to be held in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) from 13 to 16 July and for the member states to bring forward multiannual budget timetables for scaling up to these levels by 2020 taking into account budgetary constraints.
The message has deliberately been sent before the Foreign Affairs Council, due to meet in its Development format, to discuss this issue on 26 May.
“The European Parliament sends a powerful political message to the Commission, the Council and the member states on the leading role and the highly responsible role that the EU should play in the negotiations to be held at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa”, said rapporteur Pedro Silva Pereira (S&D, Portugal).
Parliament points out that domestic resource mobilisation is more predictable and sustainable than foreign assistance and must be a key source of financing. It calls on the Commission to enhance its capacity-building assistance to developing countries in the areas of tax administration, public financial management and fighting corruption. It wants the EU and its member states to actively crack down on tax havens, tax evasion and illicit financial flows.
Parliament stresses that international corporate tax rules should include the principle that taxes should be paid where value is extracted or created.
MEPs note that public aid to development alone is not sufficient to cover all investment needs in developing countries and call on the EU to set up a regulatory framework together with developing countries that stimulates more responsible, transparent and accountable investment, contributing to the development of a socially conscious private sector in developing countries.
The NGO ONE, which campaigns against poverty in the world, welcomed the resolution through which “the Parliament has once again shown its strong commitment to deliver transformative change for the world's poorest and most vulnerable”. ONE Policy and Advocacy Officer Valentina Barbagallo hopes that development ministers will follow these “bold recommendations”. (Aminata Niang)