Is European Union distributing it's development aid realy gratuitously?

The European Union prides itself on being the world's largest donor of development funding, with each of its citizens contributing some 100 Euros annually. But the assistance has not been free of criticism. Critics argue that the EU gives with one hand and takes with the other. Radio Sweden’s Azariah Kiros explains.

The body which administers EU development assistance, EuropeAid, says it does more than deliver aid. Not many doubt the EU’s generosity. But some question if the results achieved are not offset by its trade and other policies. Jens Holm, a Member of the European Parliament for the Swedish Left Party feels the European Union has failed in a number of areas.

“At the moment it is not very effective at all, unfortunately, because with one hand the European Union say that ‘yes we have to develop, the whole world and so on but on the other hand the European Union signs new free trade agreement that countries in the developing world have to export more raw materials and they get very little money paid for those raw materials.”

The Swedish Lutheran Church is one of Sweden’s most active non-governmental organisations involved in development assistance in many parts of the world.

Gunnel Axelsson Nycander, policy advisor at Swedish Church Aid sees a number of weaknesses in the EU development programme.

“Given the climate crisis, it is even more urgent that the EU does what we’ve been asking for for many years, to open up the market to get rid of those very stringent rules which make import rules which on paper are very generous, very complicated to use in practice.”

Swedish civil societies insist that the European Union has an obligation to make sure that its development co-operation goals are not offset by other policies.

“As has been for a long time that the lack of coherence in the EU policy, meaning that what the development arm is saying is actually contradicted by, for instance, trade policy and an agricultural policy.”

The same sentiments are expressed by Jens Holm Swedish Member of the European Parliament who gives a concrete example of how the EU’s trade policy is blocking export possibilities for an African country.

Jens Holm: “If a country as Ghana for instance, if they try to make chocolates, refine their coco beans in their home country, then the European Union imposes higher tariff on the chocolate from Ghana which makes it impossible for Ghana to export refined products such as chocolates.”

So how does the European Commission, which is the executive body of the European Union, react to these accusations? Anders Henriksson, the European Commission’s representative in Sweden, told me he was not totally unaware of the criticism from the civil societies.

“These are long-standing arguments that I am perfectly well aware of. I think the interesting question is now what does the EU do next? How do we try to come up with what I would call a comprehensive and intelligent policy that can address this? That’s not a small task. You need also to have political support in the EU countries, from the populations in Europe for the policy you have.”

Swedish civil societies also say they are apprehensive when it comes to the impact of climate change on those least equipped to tackle it. Gunnel Axelsson of the Swedish Church believes that many people are aware of the magnitude of the problem but she is not convinced if everyone is prepared to try to see what this would mean in practice.

“In theory a lot of people start to realise that, ‘yes climate change affect us all, but the effects will be far harder in developing countries’. But what in fact this will mean or may mean, I think most people try to keep from their immediate minds.”

How does the European Union intend to deal with the issue of climate change and its impact on development co-operation?

Anders Henriksson, head of the EU Commission’s office in Sweden says closer cooperation between donor and recipient nations is of paramount importance.

“The EU not least the Commission that I work for knows well that we will not have a global deal to deal with the climate challenge if we do not get the developing countries onboard. They are in many cases the primary victims or they risk being, but they are in many cases also very important actors that have to take measures themselves. And this is one of the most challenging parts of the climate equation.”

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