The European Commission is proposing to allocate €600 million from the European Development Fund reserves to support the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partner countries most affected by the looming food crisis in a context of food insecurity aggravated by the war in Ukraine.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced this during the opening of the European Development Days (EDD 2022) on Tuesday 21 June.
“In order to help our partners, we will mobilise an additional €600 million to avoid a food crisis and an economic shock”, she said.
This reallocation of unused funds intended for ACP countries under the Cotonou Agreement was discussed at the European Council in late May (see EUROPE 12962/2).
The proposed Commission decision provides for the following allocation of funds:
- €150 million in humanitarian aid for cash assistance wherever necessary and, where possible, support to populations through existing social protection mechanisms and safety nets.
- €350 million, in the medium to long term, to support investments in sustainable agricultural production and more resilient food systems.
- €100 million in macroeconomic support through an additional contribution to the International Monetary Fund’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT).
This €600 million is in addition to the €3 billion from the EU budget (NDICI, Global Europe) for sustainable agriculture, basic nutrition, water and sanitation and social protection projects (€2 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa and €1 billion for the Southern Neighbourhood countries (North Africa and the Middle East), which complement the €225 million food and resilience facility for this region. The sum of €960 million is also foreseen in the EU budget for Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia until 2024. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)