16 January 2012/ Worldandmedia.com: As the economic crisis deepens in Europe, reaching budget targets for overseas development is ambitious but realistic according to a spokeswoman for the bloc’s aid programmes.

“I can’t predict accurately, I don’t know what could happen …There will be a new graded co-operation so we won’t (always) provide direct aid,” Catherine Ray, spokesperson for the EU Commissioner for Development said. “But our aim is to make sure people see that increasing aid is not a luxury.”

The commissioner has proposed cutting bi-lateral aid to 19 countries including India and Indonesia who are now deemed to be emerging economies and no longer in need of direct aid.

Ray said it is important for aid budgets to remain predictable, saying at present projects are under the 2007-2013 budget so cannot be changed.

“At the moment we are aware there is a crisis, countries have their own austerity measures to deal with but we are still asking them to respect their commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of their budget on aid by 2015,” she said.

Last June, a number of European leaders reaffirmed their aid pledges but not all. Spain has now frozen its development budget and Ireland has decreased its projected development assistance spending this year by €53 million. Meanwhile the Dutch government announced plans to cut its aid contribution this year from 0.8 per cent of GNP to 0.7 per cent.

However, in a similar vein to David Cameron – who defended his decision to reach the 0.7 per cent target by 2013 in response to a survey that found public scepticism of overseas aid – Ray says that countries should look at Africa’s growth rate and long-term aid as “a win-win situation”.

This is also the Irish view as set out in its new Africa Strategy. The Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) Eamon Gilmore has said: “Our long term aim is to end dependency on aid and to build a new relationship with Africa based on politics, democracy and trade.”

And after 2013?

So what is likely to happen in the negotiations for the next cycle of funding? The European Commission warned in November that there is “a serious risk” they could run out of funds in 2012 for short-term European projects. Should this happen, it could adversely affect talks on the long-term plans.

But for now the commissioner for development has proposed an increase of 17 per cent in aid funding to the 130 countries remaining in the programme; whether this will be accepted is not yet clear.

And Ray said it will not become clear until later this year, as discussions will continue for some months.

“We have asked for more. It is complicated to ask European tax-payers to pay (for aid), we are seeing a huge drop in budgets. But I think politicians are aware that aid is not a luxury – everybody needs to have poverty taken care of,” she said.

– Niahmn Griffin/ Worldandmedia.com