Stop your aid to rich countries, EU is told

JUSTINE GREENING has called for a major shake-up in the EU aid budget – as it emerged more than half the cash is squandered on relatively rich countries.

The International Development Secretary challenged the basis of the £ 10billion- a- year budget, which channels cash to countries such as Turkey, Iceland and Brazil.

She is pressing for a major shift in policy to target resources at the poorest countries.

Miss Greening held talks with ministers from France, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, Finland and Luxembourg to build a coalition for reform.

She also discussed the issue with the EU’s foreign affairs commissioner, Baroness Ashton.

Miss Greening said: ‘I don’t think it’s right that the EU still gives money to those countries higher up the income scale, when we’ve taken the decision to target the poorest.

‘I’ll be doing everything I can to get other countries on board.’

Her intervention comes amid mounting concern about the EU aid budget, which receives £1.4billion a year from the UK, equal to one-sixth of this country’s total aid budget. Figures prepared for the Commons international development committee reveal that just 46 per cent of EU aid goes to genuinely needy countries in the developing world.

The figures suggest around £784million of aid money channelled through Europe now goes to better-off countries. By comparison, some 72 per cent of British aid money is spent in the world’s poorest countries.

Experts say the discrepancy means that for every £1 Britain channels through the EU, the world’s poorest countries lose 26p.

Many of the countries funded by Brussels are considered too wealthy to receive aid directly from the UK.

Among the projects funded by the EU are a scheme promoting tourism in an Icelandic national park and a pro-EU television series in Turkey.

Brazil has received more than £10million, including £660,000 spent on the social integration of women living in fishing communities.

And Barbados has received £1.8million to build a hotel to train young people in hospitality management.