BRUSSELS — With the United Kingdom heading toward an exit from the European Union in January, the U.K. aid sector is grappling with its future outside of the bloc.
A key concern is that, as a non-EU country, U.K. NGOs will lose their eligibility for at least some EU aid contracts, because “the EU still ties its aid — something the U.K. hasn’t done since the mid-90s,” according to Chris Carter, deputy head of the Europe department at the U.K. Department for International Development, who is helping to lead DFID’s work on Brexit.
His point received short shrift in Brussels, however, with a senior official from the EU's foreign service telling reporters that such concerns were "a little bit rich" coming from a country that, as an EU member state, had helped to set the rules.