2007 should instead have been a year of significant increases to meet the official targets. Yet there was a slight decline in the amount of European Official Development Assistance (ODA) and in ODA as a proportion of Europe’s economic output.
Key findings
- Nine EU governments increased their ODA as a percentage of economic output between 2006 and 2007. These are Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania and Spain. But a clear majority of Member States – 18 out of 27 – failed to increase their ODA levels between 2006 and 2007.
- On current trends the EU will have given €75 billion less between 2005 and 2010 than was promised. EU governments must stop inflating their ODA numbers, give citizens a true picture of their contributions, and concentrate on genuine, timetabled, transparent spending increases.