BRUSSELS — The European Union and its member states are the world’s biggest development donors, and they want you to know it.
“Development is not charity; development is strategy,” Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank, told EU development ministers in Brussels this week at a session on the financial architecture for development. “The EU must become stronger, smarter and more visible in development to strengthen its economic and strategic autonomy.”
The discussion came on the back of a report published last month that provided recommendations on how to make the bloc’s development finance system more coherent and prominent, particularly in Africa, where officials fear China is winning the battle for influence.