| EU aid 'bypasses the neediest' in Africa |
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BRUSSELS (TVE), 4 December 2007- Ahead of the EU-Africa summit at the weekend in Lisbon, non-governmental organisations are calling for greater transparency and a better focus in the European Union's development assistance to the world's poorest countries. The EU is the world’s largest donor to poor countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP), providing 52 percent of overall funding. The next six years of this funding will be decided in the coming weeks. In a pre-summit round-table Dec 4 in Brussels with members of the European Parliament, representatives from the European Commission, EU member States, and ACP countries, representatives of NGOs called for making EU aid "more transparent, effective and better focused on meeting the Millennium Development Goals" (MDGs). Most of EU aid to Africa is given as general budgetary support instead of being targeted to specific sectors or programmes, and is not decided by elected parliamentarians. "In the name of country ownership EU aid to the ACP countries is now almost exclusively given as general budgetary support. A disturbingly small proportion of this support ends up in health and poverty alleviation programs,” said Simon Stocker, president of Eurostep comprising of more than 15 NGOs as its members. He added: “We have to trust country governments, but also act in the best interests of those who most need our aid, primarily women and children. We are perfectly comfortable earmarking billions in support for road building and transportation, why not for the social sector?” Reports recently published by NGOs raise serious questions as to how this process meets the EU's own goals for democracy and transparency, and as to how this aid will go to reaching the MDGs, to which the EU says it is firmly committed. “These country strategy papers control billions of dollars in aid, and could help alleviate poverty and suffering for millions, yet they are not subject to the democratic process,” said Mirjam van Reisen, author of the 2015Watch report “The European Parliament has been sidelined, leaving 22 billion euros of EU taxpayer's money without any democratic accountability. Citizens of the EU should at very least expect the Commission to live up to the same levels of transparency it asks of Zimbabwe,” van Reisen said. Reports prepared by European External Policy Advisors (EEPA) together with leading NGOs examine the EU’s commitments to reaching the MDGs, including the commitment to focus 20 percent of aid on health and the social sector. Roundtable participants said Bernard Petit, the deputy director general of the Directorate General for Development of the European Commission, had assured that the Commission supported parliamentary scrutiny for the ACP country programmes and that this could be "realised as soon as the European Development Fund has been integrated in the EU budget". Europarliamentarian Thijs Berman however said that the parliament could not wait until the budgetary process had been completed. "We will put 20 percent of the budget in reserve until we have democratic scrutiny over the African country programmes," he was quoted saying. The need for parliamentary scrutiny is also underlined by the joint draft statement by the European Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament on the Joint EU-Africa Strategy to be adopted by the EU and African Heads of State and Government on Dec 8-9 in Lisbon. The statement says: "We welcome the recent decision by the Council of Ministers of the European Union to transmit the draft ACP Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly ‘for information’, but we point out that this is only a first step, and that our parliaments’ institutional powers to monitor budget and policy implementation processes must extend to all actions funded through the European Union’s cooperation." It adds: "The Joint Strategy must therefore contain clear provisions for the exercise of the fundamental parliamentary right of scrutiny. This is of vital importance, for it ensures that the Executives carry out the agreed policies in an effective, democratic and fiscally responsible manner. It is a task of great responsibility, and we will carry it out in close cooperation with our peoples, their civil society and their local authorities." The draft statement further points out: "As parliaments, we have also an important oversight responsibility, always bearing in mind how concrete measures affect the quality of life of the peoples we represent. By providing oversight, we ensure that the Executive performs in a responsible and accountable manner and that aid is managed and spent effectively in support of poverty reduction and sustainable development." (END) |
