A look back at European aid’s slash-and-burn year

“Very worrisome” — that’s how the outgoing head of the European Commission’s development work, Jutta Urpilainen, summed up recent cuts to foreign aid by national governments in the European Union. “Many of our member states have decreased their development cooperation funding,” Urpilainen told members of the European Parliament in September. “And I think this is something we should speak up much more loudly [about], because this is also a political signal which we are sending to our partners, especially in the global south, by cutting our cooperation with those regions.” In a dark year for development in Europe, however, the commission has been among those ordered to swing the axe. Explore the visual story to read the rest of the story on European aid’s grueling 2024 and what’s in store for 2025.