David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Aug 29 2007 (IPS) – The European Union s only directly elected body is demanding increased aid for basic health and education in poor countries before it approves next year s budget for the 27-nation bloc.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have recently begun scrutinising the EU s draft budget for 2008, which is set to exceed 129 billion euros (176 billion dollars).
Initial discussions within the assembly indicate that it could refuse to give its blessing to some of the proposed expenditure on development aid in a vote slated for December.
Ralf Walter, a German Socialist MEP, said that he was dissatisfied with the level of financing going to health and education in poor countries.
Under the EU s new Development Cooperation Instrument, which covers aid to Asia and Latin America, the Union is legally obliged to allocate at least 20 percent of its assistance to health and education.
Walter, who has been tasked with preparing an official response to the budget for the Parliament s development committee, is seeking explicit commitments that the obligation will be honoured.
He has argued in parliament that respecting this commitment is especially important in Asia, as the continent has the highest absolute number of people living in poverty.
Walter is proposing that some 103 million euros (140 million dollars) in aid to Asia should be placed in reserve. This would be slightly less than one-fifth of the total amount earmarked for Asia in the 2008 budget.
According to Walter, the 103 million euros will be released once the EU executive, the European Commission, has shown that money allocated for Asia is being genuinely used to fight disease and illiteracy.
He pointed out that the success of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals of reducing extreme poverty by 2015 will be very much dependent on Asia. These objectives include targets to deal with infant mortality and deaths of women in childbirth and to ensure that every boy and girl can go to school.
In recent years, the proportion of EU development aid going to education has shrunk considerably: from 4 percent in 2000 to just 2.7 percent in 2005.
Walter is also querying the level of support that the EU is giving to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
While he recognised that the Geneva-based organisation is doing an excellent job , he noted that it is to receive the lion s share of all EU money earmarked for health. The European Commission has proposed that 50 million euros (68 million dollars) out of a total health allocation of 72 million euros (98 million dollars) should go to the Global Fund next year.
Walter said that some questions about the reliability of the Global Fund, the main international body charged with combating AIDS, have arisen in the U.S.
A report published by the American Government Accountability Office in May found that the Global Fund does not require a systematic assessment of agents receiving its grants. As a result, the Fund has a limited ability to determine if the agents are providing a good service, the report contended.
Frazer Goodwin from the European Public Health Alliance said that MEPs are correct to question the dominant role played by the Global Fund as a recipient of aid administered by the European Commission.
There needs to be a higher commitment by the Commission to the Millennium Development Goals in particular to the three MDGs focused on health beyond the wonderful support it gives to the Global Fund, Goodwin told IPS. He argued that there should be a greater focus on investments in the healthcare systems of countries where such systems are weak.
Nirj Deva, a British conservative MEP, said that five million children die each year from illnesses such as diarrhoea that are linked to poor hygiene. This is more than the number of infant deaths caused by AIDS, TB and malaria combined, he claimed.
His fellow conservative John Bowis concurred. I m wholly supportive of the Global Fund, said Bowis. But I m also critical of how it can sweep up all available resources and leave us bereft of other things we know are important for development and health.
French Socialist Marie-Arlette Carlotti said, however, that non-governmental organisations have been broadly satisfied with the Global Fund.
A European Commission representative said it does not see any problem with how the Global Fund has been spending money given to it. Details of 450 grants awarded by the Fund have been posted on its website, the official added.
MEPs are also critical of a proposed 48 million euros (65 million dollar) EU scheme for cooperation with countries from which Europe-bound migrants originate.
The Commission s estimates for migration and asylum are too focused on managing migration, rather than on looking at the causes of migration, Ralf Walter said. People flee for specific reasons and that is what we should be looking at.
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