Brussels, 26/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 25 November, development NGOs ONE and Oxfam International for once congratulated the EU - on increasing the share of funding for refugees and development in its recently adopted 2016 budget (see EUROPE 11438) and on raising this share to an unprecedented level.
Out of a total budget of €155 billion, €9.16 billion will be spent for work in the Middle East and for humanitarian aid in response to the refugee crisis, while additional funding has been earmarked for the European Commission's development programmes.
ONE, the movement that fights against extreme poverty in the world, and Oxfam International, which had both stated their alarm at the trend for development aid in national budgets to go down, are delighted. “This is an extraordinary result and we are very pleased at the outcome (…) The EU has shown that it is simultaneously possible to increase funding to both the refugee response and poverty-fighting aid programmes simultaneously”, said Tamira Gunzburg, the director of ONE Brussels, who asked “the member states to follow this powerful example”.
Given the unprecedented multiplicity of humanitarian crises, Natalia Olonso from Oxfam International underlined that this increase in development aid was truly necessary. She nevertheless called on the EU and its member states “to make clear guarantees that EU development funds will be used to help vulnerable people and not for Fortress Europe”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)