EU International Aid: 12 steps to 2015
EU international Aid is a major link in the chain of worldwide poverty and aid programs.
Today the EU even is the first donor worldwide, providing more than half of development aid and a staggering € 49 billion in 2009.
The twelve point plan presented today aims to support the international community in delivering the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The action plan is a call to prepare an agreed and strong EU position ahead of the MDG Summit in September and define a set of actions to be implemented at national, regional and international scales.
'If I compare this (sum) with national budgets, this is not really big money. It's really the political will that is necessary to achieve this target,' the EU's commissioner for development aid, Andris Piebalgs, told journalists in Brussels.
The 12 points for EU international Aid
- Make verifiable annual action plans for reaching individual targets
- Improve aid efficiency at the EU scale (saving estimates around 3 to 6 billion a year)
- Do more and better for the poorest
- Target the key sectors for gender, education, health and food security
- Work in partnerships
- Act in coherence with other EU policies for Development from Trade to migration to food and climate change
- Help national fundings to work better
- Strengthen regional integration and trade for growth and jobs
- Support innovative financing with high revenue potential that can benefit the poorest
- Use "fast-start" funding for climate change as a test for aid effectiveness and coherence
- Make development and security work better together
- Support stronger weight of developing countries in the World Bank, IMF and the UN reform for more effective agencies
12 steps to 2015: a sign to act
The twelve point plan is not only an important signal to the world outside Europe, it is also a message to all EU member states to work together more closely and keep their commitments.
It is a major message to all governments: Solidarity and Development Goals are of key importance for the future of the planet, beyond the moral values Europe holds dear.
De Gucht: full support from Barrosso in Congo row
Karel De Gucht is in the middle of a new clash with Congo. After expressing sharp remarks, the Commissioner was declared an official persona non grata in the African country. During a debate in the European Parliament he had stated that "Congo is a mess. Almost everything has to be redone in the country".
This is not the first time De Gucht has openly criticized Congolese leadership and the sad state of affairs in the heart of Africa. The seeming paradox is that the man shows true love for the country and its people and that his expressed sentiments are based on abundant and correct information. In his former roles on the political arena, De Gucht has shown again and again to have a clear insight in the African political context in general and in Congolese affairs in particular. By formulating criticism, De Guch no doubt wanted to stimulate the change and reform process and call upon the leaders to "shape up and do better". But the opposite seems the result. De Gucht is 'quite a character' and boast a very direct style, intelligent and witty, confident. Enough to be perceived by some as arrogant, no doubt. The surprising interview by Bruno Giussani, European Director of TED Conferences, at the TEDx Brussels 2009 is a clear example of this crisp style.
It remains a thin line between stating facts to construct a better world and telling the truth and by doing so insulting the powers in place and blocking progress. As Development Commissioner Karel De Gucht had questioned whether aid provided to Kinshasa by EU nations was being put to good use. Was that wrong? The humanitarian situation in Congo is a crisis on a devastating scale. When confronted with hunger, poverty and corruption, mismanagement and incompetence, it can no longer be seen as an insult to state these obvious facts. These circumstances strangle an entire nation and push the people beyond poverty into a state of raw Darwinism, survival of the fittest. No democratic leader can accept that.
It seems doubtful this feud can ever be resolved. On Thursday, Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende said: "We note that here is a character who is incapable of having normal, dignified relations with our country". Yet EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed the Commission's full support for De Gucht and last Thursday Jose Manuel Barroso also gave De Gucht his full backing. The EU is a major aid donor to the Democratic Republic Congo, sending some 300 million euros (430 million dollars) since 2003. It would seem logical and in the interest of Congo that any doubt on correct spending of that aid would be avoided.
Karel De Gucht will step up in front of the parliament for his hearing in order to be accepted as Commissioner for Trade; Catherine Ashton will be 'grilled' by the MP's today.