EU Renews Its Intentions

from IPS News

By David Cronin

BRUSSELS, European Union governments have resolved to ensure that international objectives on reducing extreme poverty are realised, but have backed away from devising concrete plans for increasing the amount of aid that they give to poor countries.

During a summit in Brussels Jun. 19-20, the EU's presidents and prime ministers agreed an 'agenda for action' against poverty. The summit reiterated their commitment to devoting 0.56 percent of their collective national income to development aid by 2010, rising to 0.7 percent by 2015. As a result, aid should double to 66 billion euros (103 billion dollars) within the next two years, with half of the increase going to Africa.

The leaders also said that all of the EU's 27 governments are "encouraged to establish their indicative timetables", outlining how they plan to make good on pledges that most of them signed up to in 2005.

Anti-poverty activists argued, however, that the 'agenda for action' was too weak and that explicit legally binding programmes for boosting aid are needed. Concord, a group that binds together most of the well-known aid agencies in Europe, complained that far from increasing aid, several EU governments cut the amount they gave to the poor over the past year. Without a dramatic improvement, the EU is likely to provide 75 billion dollars less in aid than it had promised between 2005 and 2010, the group estimates.

"A number of European governments have shown real commitment to keeping their promises on aid by setting timetables on how it should be delivered," said Jasmine Burnley, a spokeswoman for Concord. "But the majority are dragging their feet. This lack of commitment from some is pulling down the performance of Europe as a whole and compromising the EU's credibility on development."

The EU's leaders argued that the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for dramatically reducing the most extreme forms of poverty by 2015 can be attained in all of the world's regions "provided that concerted action is taken immediately and in a sustained manner."

Kumi Naidoo, chairman of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty suggested, though, that the EU had produced little more than a political statement, which may yield few tangible results.

"The agenda for action was designed to demonstrate Europe's leadership on poverty reduction," he said. "But the absence of annual timetables to guarantee timely aid provision really weakens it. We know that a lack of predictability in aid flows can severely impact on the poor by making it impossible for governments to pay teachers, nurses and other vital professionals."

In an analysis published this week, Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA), an organisation led by the Irish rock star Bono, berated three of the four European members of the Group of Eight (G8) top industrialised countries for not honouring pledges that they made during a summit at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005. Of the four -- Italy, Germany, France and Britain -- only Britain appears likely to come close to meeting its targets for 2010.

Pledges made to Africa are being broken, the organisation suggested. France's assistance to sub-Saharan Africa fell by 66 million dollars between 2006 and last year, for example.

Desmond Tutu, the South African bishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner, wrote the introduction to the DATA study, stating: "Intentions are one thing, follow through is another, and I am deeply worried that France, Germany and Italy are not going to keep the promises they made to Africa in 2005, because then all of Europe will be behind."

Even though EU governments implied that the fight against global poverty should be considered an urgent matter, this and all other issues on their summit agenda were eclipsed by Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon treaty a week earlier.

Because all 27 countries have to ratify the treaty before it can have legal effect, the vote against the treaty in the Irish referendum has called its future into question.

EU governments stated that despite the Irish 'No', the ratification process should continue in other member states. So far, 19 national parliaments have approved the treaty. Ireland was the only country to directly ask its voters their opinion about it.

Nonetheless, the leaders acknowledged that the treaty is in difficulty in the Czech Republic, as well as in Ireland. Ratification has been postponed in Prague because the country's Senate has asked for a court ruling on whether or not it complies with the national constitution.

And while Britain become the 19th country to endorse it via parliament this week, a High Court judge has called on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government to delay on formally ratifying it until a legal bid designed to force a referendum is assessed. The bid has been mounted by businessman and supporter of the opposition Conservative Party, Stuart Wheeler.
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