EU gives nod on €31.5-B for poor states

BRUSSELS, Belgium – The European Union (EU) on Friday, June 7, gave the go signal for the €31.5 billion in development funds in 2014-2020 for struggling nations in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP), while welcoming Somalia’s request to join the ACP as it inches back into the international fold.

Approval of the Somali bid by ministers from the EU and ACP states “will be crucial in helping Somalia on the road to growth,” said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Closing EU-ACP ministerial talks, Botswana Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani welcomed the aid commitment but cautioned that “we must ask ourselves whether we have the ability to use these funds. It’s one thing to have the money, the other to know how to use it.”

For the first time, much of the development aid — up from the previous package worth €22.7 billion — will be spent on poverty eradication, rather than on poverty alleviation, EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said.

Scattered from the Caribbean to the Pacific, 39 of the world’s 49 least-developed countries (LDCs) are ACP nations, most of them in Africa.

Together the EU and ACP account for 1.35 billion people and for a large slice of world trade. Differences with African states over trade were aired at the talks, EU diplomats told AFP.

After 13 years of often difficult talks, negotiations to finalize so-called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and several groups of ACP states face an October 2014 deadline.

“At this time there’s a general view that it’s time to finalize, at the same time being flexible,” said Ireland’s Trade Minister Joe Costello. He appeared to refer to complaints that within a single EPA group, nations have vastly different needs.

A source close to the talks said the EU hoped to clinch at least “interim” EPAs by October next year.

“We hope progress can be made in the coming 12 months,” Costello said.

Though ACP exports have had preferential access to EU markets for 3 decades, the volume of their exports has actually decreased.

EPAs aim to redress this imbalance but many struggling nations fear an influx of EU products will harm their economies. – Rappler.com