EU reiterates aid commitment amid surging global food prices

EU: European Union (EU) nations on Tuesday reiterated their commitment to increase aid to developing countries, as surging food prices threaten global efforts to fight poverty.

"The EU strongly reaffirms its commitment to achieve the collective aid target of 0.56 percent of gross national income (GNI) for 2010 and 0.7 percent of GNI for 2015," EU development ministers said after a regular meeting here.

They said although progress had been made in some countries and areas in terms of poverty eradication, the EU was seriously concerned about trends in many countries and regions, sub-Saharan Africa in particular.

The recent rise of food prices worldwide, in addition to climate change, poses additional challenges to development efforts.

The EU development ministers said they were committed to a collective response to the food prices challenge, addressing a combination of short, medium and long-term issues. In the short term, the European Commission said it has already allocated 283 million euros (446 million U.S. dollars) for food and livelihood support in 2008 and was ready to increase financial contributions as required.

In the medium and long term, EU development ministers said the EU will support a strong agricultural supply response in developing countries, providing in particular the necessary financing for agricultural inputs and assistance in using market-based risk management instruments.

However, EU agriculture ministers had been largely unresponsive a day earlier to a recent proposal for using unspent farm subsidies to help poor countries build up their own agricultural production capacity.

Although the EU and its member states are the world's largest donors, their total aid actually dropped in 2007 for the first time since 2000, prompting Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, to call on member states to stick to their commitments and "show how they will meet them." Brussels, Wednesday, Xinhua