HC Deb 20 March 1990 vol 169 cc531-2W
Sir David Steel

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs by how much has the European Community aid to developing countries increased from the 1989 to the 1990 budget; how much European Community food aid has been provided to eastern Europe in that period; and from which budget it was taken.

Mrs. Chalker

Provision for aid spending in the 1989 European Community budget was just under 980 mecu (about £660 million). The corresponding figure for 1990 was 1,102 mecu (£742 million). These figures exclude aid to developing countries under the Lome convention, which is financed direct by member states and not from the Community's budget. This rose from 1,299 mecu (£875 million) in 1989, to 1,319 mecu (£888 million) in 1990.

In 1989 and 1990 the European Community has also provided free food worth 158 mecu (£106 million) to Poland and 40 mecu (£27 million) to Romania. This has been financed from the agricultural guarantee fund of the European Community budget.