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Short attacks EU over foreign aid policy

Nigel Morris
Friday 26 April 2002 00:00 BST
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Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, delivered a scathing attack yesterday on the "scandal" of European aid not reaching the poorest countries.

She complained that only half the money was being directed to the most needy Third World nations, particularly in Africa. She said: "Lots of it is used for foreign policy purposes, or gestures, or to procure trade for the giving country. If we directed it to where the poor are, its poverty reducing effectiveness could be increased by 50 per cent."

Ms Short, opening a Commons debate, called on other countries to follow Britain's lead in breaking the link between aid and trade.

"The European Commission is a major sinner here and getting worse," she said.

Although she acknowledged a reform agenda was being put in place, she said: "The way in which it is allocated has moved even further away from poor people which is a disgrace."

She urged Parliamentarians across Europe to "get this scandal exposed and get some determination to do better".

Ms Short warned: "The world is grossly unequal and in danger for the future. But we have an opportunity to make enormous progress. We could have a period of enormous advance and it is within the grasp of our generation to remove abject poverty from the human condition.

"If we don't, the world will become more unstable and more dangerous and there will be no privileged countries that can buy their way out of the trouble that will otherwise spread across the world."

Caroline Spelman, the shadow International Development Secretary, said: "It seems wherever you go in the world, no one has a good word to say for the EU development assistance programme."

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