ICAI says the EU is wasting British taxpayers’ money

The Daily Telegraph reports: “British taxpayers are getting poor value for money from the £1.4 billion of cash channelled to poor countries through the European Union”. The paper says, “The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) has found money is being channelled to aid projects without proper assurances that it is being spent effectively.”

In fact, the EU has been widely accused of distributing aid ineffectively and inefficiently. Europe is not doing enough to support developing countries achieved through the MDG by 2015. The EU not only doesn't target its assistance at the poorest people, it fails to help developing countries by blocking progress at the World Trade Organization negotiations, namely Doha round.

It is Member States with a freely determined trade and aid policy that can determine these concerns to the best degree – the EU is committed to targets of more waste brought about by its ineffective management of aid.

It is also important to note the European Commission has been spending UK taxpayers’ money in projects that not only don't work but also go against the UK development policy as well as foreign policy interests.

The EU development assistance is comprised of the European Development Fund (EDF) as well as the European Commission budget (Heading 4, Global Europe). The current EDF (2008-2013) has a budget of €22.7 billion, to which the UK contributes with 14.8%. The UK is the third largest contributor and contributed with £409 million to the EDF in 2010.

The European Commission various development instruments (European Neighbourhood Partnership Instrument, Development Cooperation Instrument, Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, Pre Accession Instrument, Development Cooperation Instrument, Thematic aid Food Facility, European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights Instrument for Stability) amount €6440 million in 2010 to which the UK contributed with £821.64 million.

Hence, in 2010, the UK taxpayers paid £1230.64 million to EU development projects.
MAR (Multilateral Aid Review, March 2011) has deemed the European Commission budget as weak in its contribution to UK development objectives, as it has a low poverty focus, since 85% of the budget goes to middle income countries.

Because of the UK’s treaty obligations, about a fifth of the UK through the multilateral organisations in 2010/11 had to go through the European Commission budget instruments.