Strasbourg, 06/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Chris Patten defended his proposals on reforming the management of the EU's external aid before the European Parliament's Development Committee, chaired by the Portuguese Communist Joaquim Miranda. He reiterated that the Commission could not continue to manage external aid as it had done hitherto as it would take it at least four year, and in some cases (he cited the MEDA programme) up to eight, to liquidate the 21 billion euro in arrears to spend and thus fulfil all its commitments towards third countries. He recalled that a "quality support group" had been set up to improve the quality of aid planning. Responding to criticisms by the British Minister for Cooperation, Clare Short who had, notably, said that the European Commission functioned like "the worst of the humanitarian aid agencies", Mr. Patten stressed that the British ministry had more than six people to manage ten million whereas the Commission could not allocate more than two. He hoped that "all ministers who tell us that we need to act more swiftly and more efficiently" would back the proposed reform.
Several MEPs expressed fears as to the reduction of aid to developing countries, notably in the context of increased aid to the Balkans region. British Conservative John Corrie said that they should not have too pessimistic an analysis. "Many things have been achieved", even though "the system has ended up being overburdened". He asked the Commissioner whether the reform, which provides for a decentralisation of the decision-making power, would also be accompanied by greater flexibility and an increase in human resources of the Commission's delegations in third countries. Fernando Fernandez Martin (Spain, EPP) expressed concern at the cuts made in the preliminary draft budget 2001 regarding aid to Latin American and the MEDA programme. British Labour's Glenys Kinnock asked for clarifications on the distribution of roles within the Commission. Danish Liberal Lone Dybkjaer suggested the creation of a monitoring body for the execution of expenditure.
In his answers, Commissioner Patten said: "We cannot continue as we have being doing so far. True, there have been success stories (…) but we will accumulate obligations and the gap will further widen between commitments and actual spending". He then placed emphasis on the need for the Commission to secure the human resources it needed to improve the management. "I would like to offer the most generous programme possible but also manage it as efficiently as possible", said Patten before reaffirming that it was essential to make choices and define genuine priorities. We must respect the financial framework defined by the EU Summit of Berlin, he recalled, stressing that the proposed reductions concerned under-executed programmes. Thus, he explained, the budgetary authority provided for an envelope of one billion for the MEDA programme of which hardly 40% of the credits have actually been used. Under these conditions, it is fairly logical to displace amounts to sectors where money is lacking and can effectively be used quickly. The Commissioner assured Mrs. Kinnock of the close cooperation that existed within the group of Commissioners responsible for external relations. "We have a formal meeting once a month and an informal breakfast once a week", he said, stressing that he had practically never seen the British foreign minister when he himself had been minister for cooperation.