LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Summer 2007

by Max van den Berg

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Sir,
Simon Maxwell expressed his concern that the European Union’s recent emphasis on “human security” may divert EU development spending away from efforts to reduce global poverty. His analysis is particularly relevant given that we are now half-way through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) strategy to halve extreme poverty by 2015, yet many of the world’s poorest countries remain in grave danger of missing that deadline.

I strongly disagree, however, with Simon Maxwell's assertion that the EU is "getting its act together" over global development issues and should enlarge its “market share” of total European development spending. His suggestion that the EU could create a new €5bn annual MDG fund would certainly be at the expense of member states' own development programmes, which are often notably successful. Furthermore, analysis of common spending data shows that EU budget allocations fail to reflect the primary objectives of the European Consensus on Development, i.e. poverty alleviation and the MDGs. For example, health and education together account for half of the eight MDGs agreed at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000. Yet less than 3% of the 10th European Development Fund budget is allocated directly to health programmes, with a miserly 2% programmed for education.

It remains unclear how much will be set aside for health and education in the EU’s Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI). But, after scrutinizing the first lot of country strategy papers, I have the strong impression that the budget for these two sectors is decreasing rather than increasing. I am still waiting for the European Commission to explain to me how it plans to reach its benchmark of 20% of DCI expenditure on health and education, which is double the previous budget allocation for these services.

Sadly, it seems all too clear that health and education have dropped back on the EU’s list of development spending priorities. This is disgraceful and raises questions over the EU’s commitment to developing countries. In these circumstances, it would seem most unwise to create a new common European fund. Instead my solution would rather be a shift of priorities in the existing funds. The EU should establish a better balance between investment in infrastructure and programmes designed to achieve the MDGs. It should also improve coordination between the EU’s and the member states’ development programmes. Furthermore, there also needs to be greater transparency in EU decision-making about development priorities, with the allocation of funding subject to democratic scrutiny by the European parliament. At present, MEPs lack any legal right to monitor or control how the EU establishes its priorities for spending in the 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries; this situation is undemocratic and unacceptable.