EU ministers voice concern over drop in development assistance

BRUSSELS, May 16 (KUNA) -- The European Union (EU) Development Ministers Council Thursday expressed concern over the negative trend of EU official development assistance (ODA) in the world.
In 2018, EU ODA reached EUR 74.4 billion (USD 83.4 billion), representing 0.47 percent of EU gross national income (GNI).
This total was EUR 731 million (USD 820 million) lower than in 2017, said the Council that is meeting in Brussels today in a statement.
"The Council is increasingly concerned by the negative trend of EU collective ODA, which has decreased for the second year in a row, and regrets the deepening gap towards reaching the collective target to provide 0.7 percent of GNI as ODA," it said.
The Council, however, noted that the EU and its member states have maintained their position as largest ODA provider, accounting for almost 57 percent of the total ODA to developing countries from members of the OECD's (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) development assistance committee. (end) nk.hb