Jutta Urpilainen is finding her voice on her way out the door.
As the political appointee responsible for the European Commission’s foreign aid budget — the third-largest counted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development DAC behind the United States and Germany — the 49-year-old Finn has done a string of media interviews of late. Legacy building in the closing days of her five-year term? It’s a Brussels tradition.
She told Deutsche Welle last month that China is creating “dependencies” through irresponsible lending in Africa — even if research from the ONE Campaign shows the picture of the continent’s creditors is more complicated.