Europe Fails to Live up to its Promises
In 2005, European Member States promised to give 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) to developing countries across the world. However, a recent NGO report shows that European governments are not delivering on these promises. Many of them are inflating their aid figures with debt cancellation and money spent on refugees and foreign students' education in Europe. In 2006, these inflated figures accounted for almost 1/3 of European aid. Development NGOs across Europe are monitoring the quality and quantity of genuine aid and are advocating for an end to fabricated figures. The report - "Hold the applause! European governments risk breaking aid promises" - has been produced by CONCORD, the European NGO confederation for Relief and Development : http://www.concordeurope.org/
For the second year in a row, an unprecedented number of European development NGOs have come together from all the major networks, national NGOs and NGO platforms from 27 EU countries to produce a report called "Hold the Applause! EU governments risk breaking aid promises", under the umbrella of CONCORD, the European NGO confederation for relief and development. Following the release of OECD aid figures for 2006, NGOs from across Europe are calculating how much European governments and Commission have effectively given. First figures show that they are over inflating their aid figures and failing to live up to their promises. The European Union has only spent 0.30% of its Gross National Income (GNI) on genuine aid in 2006 missing their collective target for 2006 of 0.39% of GNI. Close to one third of EU development assistance in 2006 did not deliver any fresh resources for poor countries. Of this:
- Nearly €11 billion euros reported as ODA was in fact debt cancellation - primarily for
- €1.6 billion went on educating foreign students in
- €1 billion was spent on housing refugees in
NGOs want European governments to:
- Provide genuine increases in European aid
- Agree clear and binding year-on-year timetables to reach, at a minimum, the 2010 and 2015 targets with genuine aid resources
- Stop including refugee, student costs and debt relief in official aid reporting
- Improve transparency in aid reporting
- End all tied aid
- Ensure aid is focused on helping the world’s poor
- Take further steps to make aid more effective
Press activities
Click here to see information on the launch of the report in Brussels on 11th May
Symbolic demonstration on 14th May from 9am to 10 am
CONCORD will lead a "mocking" demonstration at the arrival of the Development Ministers in front of the Council of the European Union in Brussels (métro: Schuman). The participants will wear a mocking mask with the face of the Finance Ministers of the European Union. Development Ministers will be asked to put pressure on their finance colleagues to improve aid to developing countries.
BBC show around
On Monday 14th May, the BBC s building its show "THE RECORD Europe" around
Sending a protestation letter to the politicians
NGOs and citizens from all over Europe will be writing from all over
THE FULL REPORT WILL BE UNVEILED TO PUBLIC ON FRIDAY 11th OF MAY 2007
See also the sections:
- "What is the population of developing world expecting from Europe?" : testimonies (written and video recorded);
- What could be achieved in developing countries if the European Union had actually given this money? : facts and figures, including Global deprivation and global progress in developing countries
- Who is behind this 2007 report ?
- 2006 "Aid Watch" Report
- 2005 citizens' mobilisation
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