BRUSSELS, April 8 (KUNA) -- The international aid organisation, Oxfam, Tuesday welcomed news that donors had increased their development aid spending, but lamented that most of Europeآ’s wealthiest governments still fail to meet promises designed to alleviate global poverty and slash economic inequality. Oxfam was responding to todayآ’s release of 2013 aid figures by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, OECD, which show a small overall increase in EU aid, despite the fact that key donors like France (-9.8%), Netherlands (-6.2%), Belgium (-6.1%) and Portugal (-20.4%) have slashed aid and spurned their own development pledges.
The EU development aid reveals a 42 billion euro funding gap to meet their 0.7% target by 2015, noted Oxfam in a statement.
"While weآ’re happy to see some countries like the UK and Sweden increasing their contributions, in this era of unprecedented global riches, itآ’s shameful that most of Europeآ’s wealthiest countries are failing to meet agreed minimum standards to end poverty and reduce economic inequality," said Natalia Alonso, Head of Oxfamآ’s EU Office. Meanwhile, the EU in a statement said the EU and its member states continued to be the world''''s largest aid donor in 2013.
It said that EU development aid increased from 55.3 billion euro in 2012 to 56.5 billion euro in 2013. Up to 10 EU Member States increased and 8 maintained their development aid levels, while 10 EU Member States reduced their effort .
EU Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs commented:. "Clearly, the EU still has a long way to go to meet our collective commitment, but measures taken by some Member States show that we can deliver on our promises, even in difficult budgetary circumstances, provided the political will is there." " I am particularly pleased to see that the United Kingdom has achieved such a significant increase. I encourage all Member States to intensify their efforts in our last sprint to 2015," he added.
In total, 16 EU member states increased their development aid nominally by 3.91 billion euro, while the decreases in the 12 other EU member sates amounted to 1.22 billion euro. (end) nk.ajs