EUobserver takes a deep dive into the workings and new chairs of every single European Parliament committee for the new 2024-2029 session, in a series of articles first published in our print magazine of October 2024
The EU’s commitment to developing countries, and development policy in general, has been seriously questioned in recent years. Falling aid spending and Europe’s preoccupation with migration control are the most obvious pieces of evidence.
Keeping the EU looking outward is the task facing Barry Andrews, the new chair of the parliament’s development committee.
“Instead of retreating, we must advance by expanding the EU’s humanitarian presence worldwide and continuing to support those in greatest need. In doing so, the EU must remain outward-looking, despite the growing desire by some to turn inward,” Andrews told EUobserver.
"Success will be shining a light on some of the forgotten crises happening in the world right now such as Sudan,” he says, as well as ensuring that, in five years’ time, “the EU remains collectively the biggest donor for international aid in the world.”
The UN’s aid wings, and other humanitarian organisations, have warned of increasing ‘donor fatigue’ in recent years, with humanitarian crises in Sudan and Yemen among those that have struggled to obtain international attention and sufficient aid.
The battle over EU funds in the bloc’s next seven-year budget framework, which starts in 2028, will also preoccupy minds.
A leaked budget proposal from the commission included plans to shift up to €2.6bn within its main development funding pot to tackling what it calls the “extraordinary geopolitical tension” from increased migration.
Andrews, an Irish liberal MEP, says that one of his focuses will be “advocating for increased humanitarian funding and improving coordination between development aid and humanitarian efforts, particularly to enhance resilience in fragile states.”
Elsewhere, the EU Commission is keen to press ahead with its Global Gateway initiative, an infrastructure investment programme that is an attempt to outflank China’s Belt and Road.
Launched in 2021, the commission wants to maintain a budget line for Global Gateway in the next seven-year budget on which negotiations are likely to start in early 2025.
The scheme, which the commission says will drive up to €300bn in investment across Africa and Asia, is focused on promoting green industrialisation, such as green hydrogen projects, which the EU hopes could lead to increased supply to Europe. That has led some critics to suggest that the programme is more about promoting the EU’s agenda than it is a development tool. Others point out that the funding generated by Global Gateway relies heavily on the private sector putting up the cash.
Andrews says that “stronger oversight is needed to ensure that EU infrastructure projects under Global Gateway align with the dual objectives of sustainable development and poverty reduction, rather than merely advancing EU economic interests.”
In the meantime, the EU’s trade deal with the Southern African Development Community is due for review, though the passing of the Samoa Agreement last year left the EU’s trade terms with the African, Caribbean and Pacific community unchanged and is unlikely to be revisited in the new mandate.
Even so, MEPs must "advocate for fair and sustainable trade agreements that benefit developing countries, focusing on promoting sustainable value chains and upholding human rights and environmental standards within trade policies,” argues Andrews.
Pressure on national aid budgets, as member states across the EU seek to rein in spending to reduce deficits from the Covid pandemic, will also have to be countered at EU level, says Andrews.
“We are living in a time of increasing inequality and global uncertainty, and this has fuelled political divisiveness in some member states. This division is evident in calls to reduce development aid or close borders,” he adds. “One of the most contentious issues on DEVE’s agenda will be countering this rhetoric.”
The DEVE coordinators are: Lukas Mandl (EPP, Austria), Udo Bullman (S&D, Germany), György Hölvényi (PfE, Hungary), Małgorzata Gosiewska (ECR, Poland), Charles Goerens (Renew, Luxembourg), Isabella Lovin (Greens, Sweden), Issa Serra Sanchez (Left, Spain) and Marc Jongen (ESN, Italy).
Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Benjamin Fox is a seasoned reporter and editor, previously working for fellow Brussels publication Euractiv. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He heads up the AU-EU section at EUobserver, based in Nairobi, Kenya.