EU Aid (Hansard, 4 July 2001)

§ 7. Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire)
If she will make a statement on delivery of EU aid. [685]

§ The Secretary of State for International Development (Clare Short)
As my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary was saying, the UK has led the effort over the past four years to expose the ineffectiveness and lack of poverty focus in European Community development programmes and to implement a strong reform agenda. It has now been agreed that, in order to increase effectiveness, poverty reduction should be the central objective of EC development programmes, implementation procedures should be streamlined and the EC's range of activity limited. We will continue to keep up the pressure, and I hope that all parties represented in this House will encourage their representatives in the European Parliament, who tend to be silent on these matters, and their sister parties to support that reform effort.

§ Mr. Paterson
This is all words. Back in January, the European Court of Auditors made a devastating criticism of the delivery of EU aid. With her usual admirable candour, the Secretary of State endorsed that criticism, yet the Government did not ensure that the issue was discussed at Nice, and they have meekly allowed the next review to be delayed until 2006. Why?

§ Clare Short
The hon. Gentleman might not have noticed, but Parliaments deal in words. The question is whether the words are implemented. The record of his party in power was to take no action whatever to challenge or reform EU effort, and to increase massively the proportion of British development assistance that went through the EU. We are now starting to put things right. I should be grateful for his support.

§ Tony Worthington (Clydebank and Milngavie)
May I take up one point that my right hon. Friend mentioned? She said that we need allies in the matter. What can we do to increase the support that Parliament gives her in the attempt to improve EU aid? What does the European Parliament intend to do? Does she have any proposals for enlisting the assistance of other Parliaments in Europe to tackle this important issue?

§ Clare Short
My hon. Friend is right. Because the money is committed until 2006, either we get it better spent or it will go on being badly spent. We do not have a chance to review the amount until then, so we must improve performance. The European Parliament tends to think that anything that comes through Europe is additional. That is simply wrong. It is the same money, spent by member states or by the EU. The Parliament is therefore very uncritical, as my hon. Friend knows.
My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary is going to Brussels next week. We need to drum up a body of support in the European Parliament that understands the issues and will push for reform, and we need to build up that support in national Parliaments. I know that the Select Committee on International Development, of which my hon. Friend the Member for Clydebank and Milngavie 251 (Tony Worthington) was a member, tried to do that. We must drive the issue forward in this Parliament to get agreement on the reform agenda across Europe.

§ Mr. John Wilkinson (Ruislip-Northwood)
Why cannot all our aid be delivered to those who need it most, instead of going in part to the EU and being siphoned off in the process?

§ Clare Short
The proportion of British aid going through the EU under the previous Government whom the hon. Gentleman supported leapt from 10 to 30 per cent. That is the situation that we inherited. We cannot change the proportion till 2006, but we must try to improve spending before that, and examine whether it is effective. If not, we must reduce the proportion thereafter.