The EU no longer keeps its promises for development aid

The European Union is no longer keeping its promises in terms of development aid with contributions declining since 2016, deplored the NGO collective Concord on Wednesday 28 October in its annual report.

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EU member states have pledged to devote 0.7% of their gross national income (GNI) to development aid in 2030. However, in 2019, the report points out, these states mobilized 78 billion dollars. euros for development aid, ie 0.46% of its GNI, against 0.51% in 2016. At the rate at which the decreases in these contributions are going, and without the support of the major European economies,

, worries Concord.

The latter brings together 2,600 European NGOs active in development aid.

The collective underlines that the contribution of France increased, despite the economic crisis, by 6% between 2018 and 2019 to bring it to 11.1 billion euros, or 0.43% of its GNI.

Germany is the largest contributor with 21.9 billion euros, or 0.60% of its GNI, but this amount remains unchanged from 2018, according to Concord.

The third largest economy in the EU, Italy, has a very low contribution of 4.4 billion euros, or 0.23% of its GNI, which has been falling steadily since 2016.

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Three Member States, Luxembourg, Sweden and Denmark, devote 0.7% of their GNI to development aid, but their three contributions total 7.8 billion euros.

A fourth country, the UK, reached the 0.7% target with a contribution of € 17.7 billion in 2019, but left the EU.

Thirteen member states reduced their contributions between 2018 and 2019 with a cut of 4% for Poland and 7% for Estonia.

A significant part of the funds recorded as development aid are

and cover debt cancellations from poor countries, aid to foreign students and for refugees in Europe.

Germany thus accounted for 4.8 billion of which 60% for refugees.

France has allocated 2.5 billion, 43% of which for refugees.

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The OECD and the European Commission allow countries to count these expenditures in development aid, but several have given up on this practice, or for small amounts including Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

The NGO collective pleads for the establishment of a tax on financial transactions, the revenues of which should be allocated to development aid.