Brussels, 27/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - The largest ever fall in the level of European official development aid (ODA), down to 0.38% of GDP in 2007 (after an excellent year in 2006) came under scrutiny in Brussels on 27 May at a meeting of Development Ministers largely devoted to the EU's role as a global development partner in the realisation of the Millennium Development Gaols (MDGs). While the Council expressed its concern at delays in sub-Saharan Africa, it remains confident that the challenge of reducing world poverty by a half will be met in the next seven years, if immediate and sustained concerted action is taken.
“We have decided to increase efforts to reach the MDGs as quickly as possible. Ministers agreed that the EU, the world's largest donor, has to continue to play a leading role in this aid dynamic. Our conclusions will be the launch pad for discussions at the June European Council,” Slovenian minister and Council President Andres Ster told press after the meeting. Although the EU is on the right track, further efforts are required to meet the needs that are becoming ever more pressing in developing countries which find themselves in increasingly precarious positions, he added, adding that, “member states will prepare their long-term multi-annual programmes”.
Referring to the discussion ministers had with FAO Director General Jacques Diouf and a representative of the World Food Programme, Ster spoke of the two courses of action identified by the Council to alleviate the impact of the world food crisis on developing countries: “immediate short-term financial commitment” and “structural measures that will need long-term commitment”.
On behalf of Commissioner Louis Michel (attending a conference on Africa in Japan), Stefano Manservisi, Development Director General, welcomed the Council's “message of commitment” ensuring the EU's ability to retain its role as leader, both in quantity and quality of aid provided. He said it was essential in the perspective of the high level OECD forum in Accra on 2-4 September and the UN conferences (New York on 25 September) and Doha 29 November-2 December where a mid-term review will be drawn up on the progress achieved towards the MDG.
In a context of the world food crisis that is primarily hitting people in the poorest countries of the world, the Council unanimously reconfirmed the EU's commitment to collectively increase ODA by 2010 to 0.56% of average GNP rates (which means an annual doubling of aid to reach more than €66bn in 2010) and in view of reaching 0.7% by 2015, explained the Council. The determination, however, to provide itself with the means of reaching this goal through a binding control system of the progress accomplished, year by year, did not gain unanimity. European Commissioner Louis Michel's wish for member states to make firm commitments on multiannual calendars for 2010-15 (EUROPE 9639) clashed with the budgetary constraints of some of the big countries (France, Germany and even Portugal, which in 2007 agreed to an unprecedented effort to clean up its public finances) and the misgivings of some of the new member states (Estonia at the head of them, supported by Poland, Latvia and Romania). The latter are finding it tough “to sell” public development aid to their public and are not helped in this task if the EU boxes them in on annual calendars. The Council's inability to overcome this basic problem was known about at the outset of the ministerial debate.
In its conclusions, the Council simply gave “strong encouragement” to the member states to establish rolling multi-annual indicative timetables that illustrate how member states aim to reach, within their national budget procedures, their respective ODA targets. In so doing, the Council endorsed the compromise proposed by the Slovenian Presidency, reviewing downward the demands of countries initially in favour of tougher language for ensuring the predictability of efforts from one year to the next (Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Finland, Sweden and the UK). The Council also invites the European Commission to include the Monterrey process in its regular follow-up report (Monterrey being the location of the UN conference on development financing in 2002), as well as information on the establishment and implementation of indicative timetables. This mechanism opens the road to formulation, by the Commission, of criticism on the performance of its member states. This move forward is to the credit of Jean-Louis Schiltz, the minister from Luxembourg, a country among the aid champions (with Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands), which held the Council Presidency in 2005 when EU commitments were taken to boost ODA. Considering that results in 2007 are not in line with 2005 commitments and that multiannual progression tables are required for those who do not reach their targets, the compromise endorsed is, in his view, the minimum acceptable.
Louis Michel takes the same view. “We failed to increase our aid last year. How can we prove that we shall keep our promises for 2010? Some (Ed. Like Spain) have adopted a multiannual timetable. We hope they will be followed by others. I find the compromise hardly satisfactory but I can accept it”, the commissioner told ministers.
Speaking to the press, Leire Pajin, Spanish Secretary of Sate for Development, expressed “disappointment” but counts on the European Council of 19-20 June to get things back on an even keel. (A.N.)