EU leaders will meet next month in Brussels for what is expected to be a showdown on the bloc’s next multiannual financing framework, and aid advocates are concerned funding for the world’s poorest might be heading for the chopping block.
At last week’s European Development Days, ONE Brussels Director Eloise Todd told Devex Editor Rolf Rosenkranz that the cuts could go as high as €10 billion ($13 billion). This is roughly 20 percent of the proposed budget for the global poverty fight of €51 billion from 2014 to 2020.
ONE is making a case that the proposed aid budget won’t cost each European that much. A video (see above) released last month puts the price at less than €15 per year.
How did it derive the figure?
The European Union’s aid to the poorest, according to ONE, covers the European Development Fund (€30 billion) for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, and the Development Cooperation Instrument (€20.6 billion). Given the bloc’s half-billion people — to be exact, nearly 504 million people in 2012 — the annual per capita cost of aid then amounts to just €14.35.
The ONE video features a group of Europeans, who affirm their support for Europe’s spending for development. This actually reflects the sentiment of the majority of the region’s citizens, as per a recent survey by the European Commission.
