While the European Parliament’s Committee on Development (DEVE) expressed full support for the EU’s global response to the COVID-19 pandemic on the evening of Tuesday 21 April, with over €20 billion in contributions to a co-ordinated global response, it believes that the EU must show leadership in strengthening international solidarity with developing countries, and above all cooperate with its partners in Africa.
The exchange of views by videoconference with European Commissioners Jutta Urpilainen (International Partnerships) and Janez Lenarčič (Crisis Management) highlighted this shared concern.
The political group coordinators decided to draft two own-initiative reports, one on the impact of the pandemic on developing countries and the other on the humanitarian aspects of the crisis, said committee chair Tomas Tobé (EPP, Sweden).
Not enough for Africa. The EPP considered that the involvement of local agencies in developing countries in the response should not be neglected. Several MEPs, such as Udo Bullmann (S&D, Germany), expressed fears that €3.25 billion for all of Africa out of the €20.7 billion is clearly insufficient or, like Charles Goerens (Renew Europe, Luxembourg), insisted that the EU’s response should be the result of an additional financial effort. The ID group, for its part, questioned the relevance of providing, for example, €50 million in budget aid to Nigeria, an oil producer.
Ms Urpilainen announced that a list of priorities and needs related to COVID-19 of the partner countries would be created, while respecting the financial envelopes per country.
“Our concerns are for the most vulnerable populations and countries particularly in Africa, and also in conflict areas in the Middle East”, she said. She expressed the hope that Member States would contribute more to the €20.7 billion envelope available at present, which is not new money (see EUROPE 12464/13).
She recalled that the response of the Commission and the European External Action Service consisted of €500 million in emergency aid, €2.8 billion to support research and health systems in partner countries and €12.3 billion to tackle the economic and social impact of the pandemic, for millions of people, particularly young people and women already facing difficulties and at risk of losing everything.
"We are ready to lead the global community against this global threat”, she said, affirming that the EU is a reliable partner of the UN, the WHO and the international financial institutions.
The donor conference, organised by the Commission on 4 May to help fund a vaccine and treatments, will aim to raise up to €7.5 billion, she said.
Call for an increase in the future humanitarian budget in the MFF. Ensuring a robust humanitarian response under the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) will be at the heart of the EU’s action in this comprehensive response, stressed Mr Lenarčič. This is to alleviate the suffering of populations already victims of humanitarian crises, without cutting funds from operations already planned for 2020. He therefore called on Parliament to support a humanitarian budget commensurate with the challenge in the next MFF.
“Although the external relations angle was somewhat absent in the weeks when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit EU countries, there is now a keen awareness that the situation in developing countries and countries affected by the crisis makes an ambitious and action-oriented EU external response essential”, Mr Tobé said.
The agreement of the group coordinators to focus on the COVID-19 crisis will have an impact on other important issues. Thus, the parliamentary committee will not examine the new EU framework for action to protect and restore forests worldwide (see EUROPE 12391/5), but a draft opinion has been drawn up. The deadline for tabling amendments is 14 May, for the purpose of a vote in June. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)