HC Deb 04 July 2002 vol 388 cc547-8W
Mrs. Spelman

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) if she will make a statement on the outcome of the EU summit in Seville with respect to aid; [65190]

(2) whether EU development aid may be tied to asylum policies following the conclusions reached in the Seville summit. [65189]

Clare Short

The conclusions of the European Council meeting in Seville (20–21 June) dealt with three issues relevant to international development.

First, as part of the EU's continuing preparations for enlargement, it was agreed that the work of the Development Council should be merged into a new General Affairs and External Relations Council which will also deal with foreign policy, military and security policy, foreign trade and humanitarian aid. The Government will be discussing working arrangements for this new Council over the next few weeks in order to ensure effective handling of the European Community's development programmes.

Second, in their discussions of asylum and immigration, Heads of State and Government agreed that closer economic cooperation, trade expansion, development assistance and conflict prevention were all means of promoting prosperity and reducing the underlying causes of migration flows. It was also agreed that, in dealing with countries that do no cooperate in combating illegal immigration, measures taken by the European Union should not jeopardise EU development objectives.

Third, Heads of State also endorsed the EU position for the World summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg and stressed the Union's willingness to continue playing a leading role in the preparation of the summit.

Mrs. Spelman

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much EU aid will be used to support poor countries' efforts to comply with the EU's asylum policy in each of the next three years. [65194]

Clare Short

There has been no change in the objectives of the EC's development programmes. A separate budget line was established in 2001 to fund migration-related activities in third countries. Euro 10 million was committed through that budget in 2001 and Euro 22.8 million was provided for 2002. This budget is not used in pursuit of the EC's development policy. The amount available for this budget is decided on an annual basis and figures for the next three years are therefore not available.

Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the steps she has taken to ensure that the European Union devotes more of its resources to the poorest countries. [64690]

Clare Short

In 2000, only 38 per cent. of EC aid was spent in low income countries compared to 70 per cent. a decade before. In November 2000 we secured adoption of an EC development policy which, for the first time, makes poverty reduction the central objective of EC development programmes. This new policy calls for priority in resource allocation to be given to low income countries and we continue to work for agreement on the budget allocations to implement this policy and have the greatest impact on poverty reduction. In particular we are working for an increase in allocations for Asia. We welcome the positive steps that have been taken to reform EC development assistance. This should help improve the rate of programme implementation, of particular importance to the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries where many of the world's poorest people live. But much remains to be done to improve the poverty focus and effectiveness of EC development assistance.