Brussels - The European Union will likely wind down its aid to developing nations in coming years, as it seeks to focus squeezed resources on the world’s neediest countries, the EU’s aid commissioner said in an interview.
Emerging countries featured prominently on the EU’s list of aid recipients during its budget period from 2007 to 2013.
India was scheduled to receive about €400m over the period, China some €170m and Brazil around €61m. Much of the money was destined for projects related to bilateral trade, environmental protection and power supply.
Now, these countries are capable of providing for themselves, EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs told Reuters.
“China will not be on the list. Brazil will not be on the list,” he said. “It is a major change: In the past the assumption was that development was forever.”
The Commission had not yet formally decided which countries will not receive development assistance in the seven-year budget period from 2014, but these three big emerging economies - China, Brazil and India - would likely not feature on the list, an EU official added.
The EU would target health, education, sustainable agriculture and clean energy from 2014-2020.
In addition to neediness, the EU would also take into account progress towards democracy when deciding aid recipients.
Piebalgs said there was a clear link between democracy and the alleviation of hardship, especially in parts of Africa and the Middle East. Dictatorships tended to have lower growth than democracies, meaning that an aid policy rewarding democracy was more effective.
“As we saw in the Arab Spring... dictatorships never provided sufficient growth,” he said. “Growth should serve everybody in the country. It’s really in democracy that it evolves.”
Aid from the EU bloc accounts for more than half of global aid, though just 18 percent of the total comes from EU funds. Still, the European Commission’s policies have some influence over those of national governments.
The EU’s refocusing comes at a time of austerity in Europe, when most of its 27 members are struggling with large government debts, putting pressure on their aid budgets.
“We will make sure that the money goes only to those who are most in need,” Piebalgs said.