EU:EU states artificially inflate development aid spending by including debt cancellation and money spent at home on foreign students and refugees in their aid budgets.
In 2006 almost a third of all EU member states' development aid, some €13.5 billion, was allocated to these activities, rather than helping the poor abroad, a new report has claimed.
Hold the Applause! EU governments risk breaking aid promises names and shames several states including France, Germany and Austria for being the worst offenders.
In 2006, Austria spent half its €1.2 billion aid budget on debt cancellation to Serbia, Iraq and Cameroon.
Meanwhile, France included €1.3 billion spent on housing refugees and educating foreign students at home within its €8 billion development aid budget.
"If European governments do not improve on current performance, poor countries will have received €50 billion less from Europe by 2010 than they have been promised," said Lucy Hayes of the European Network on Debt and Development at the launch of the report in Brussels.
The report claims that many EU states are making "misleading claims" about their aid figures by including items that should not be counted as development aid.
For example, in 2006 EU states counted €8 billion of debt cancellation to Iraq and Nigeria as development aid. A further €2.5 billion debt cancellation to other states was included as development aid by EU states, while a further €2.7 billion on refugees and foreign students within Europe was also accounted for as development aid.
A spokesman for the European Commission dismissed the criticism yesterday, describing debt relief as an important tool to bolster developing states' finances.
The report praised Ireland for only inflating €6 million of its €794 million aid budget. It also welcomed the fact that most Irish aid was poverty-focused, predictable, and primarily went to least developed and low-income countries. The report was drawn up by Concord, an umbrella organisation representing 1,600 NGOs.