Oxfam reaction to Ashton’s proposal on the new European External Action Service

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has presented today her blueprint for the new European External Action Service.

Elise Ford, head of Oxfam International’s EU office, said:

“Ashton’s desire to set the direction of how EU development money is spent is potentially bad news. Her proposal on the EU’s first ever diplomatic service risks making poverty objectives hostage to foreign policy goals. It is now up to EU member states and the European Parliament to rectify Ashton’s misconception about what effective development policy is.

“Poor countries need EC Development Commissioner Piebalgs to make budgetary decisions on the basis of where needs and potential for impact are greatest, rather than being driven by the political and strategic objectives of the Union.

“As Europe is the world’s largest donor, having provided around €50bn in development aid last year - approximately 60% of total Official Development Assistance globally, developing countries cannot afford for the EU to get it wrong. It is now crunch time as the EU is formulating its position for the crucial UN Millennium Development Goals review summit in September in New York."

Today, around the world, 4,000 children will be killed by diarrhea, a disease of dirty water, 1,400 women will die needlessly in pregnancy or childbirth and 100 million school-age children, most of them girls, will not go to school. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. Aid is not a panacea, but it is currently a necessity for many poor countries, along with domestic resources, trade and other flows of income.

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