“European governments’ failure to meet aid pledges is nothing short of disgraceful. Europe likes to see itself as a world leader in development assistance, but these figures show that governments are taking a step backward on their commitments” said Olivier Consolo, CONCORD Director. “17 of the 27 European member States have not increased their Official Development Assistance at all in the last year and of these, 11 have actually allowed it to fall. The gap between promises and reality must be closed!”
Over 1600 European NGOs united under the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), and CONCORD, the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development, have criticised European governments for their failure to live up to aid promises. According to the OECD, European aid fell from 0.41% to 0.38% of Gross National Income (GNI) in 2007. European governments are getting further from, not closer to, their 2010 commitments of 0.56 % GNI for ODA and have yet to set out how they will meet their aid targets. France, which will take the Presidency of the European Union as from the 1st of July is one major donor which has failed to announce a timetable for how it will meet its commitments of aid.
CONCORD and GCAP have today called on European governments to set transparent and binding timetables showing how they will meet their commitments to give more aid.
On 22nd of May this year, CONCORD will launch an in-depth report analysing issues of quality and quantity of aid from EU member states to the developing world.
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