EU Urged to Provide Aid to 3rd World Countries

Already under pressure to cut its internal agricultural subsidies, the European Union is now being urged to provide aid to Third World Countries to help them establish long-term sustainable farming in order to feed millions of people as global food prices continue to rise.

According to Actionaid, an anti-poverty agency, developing countries lose $159 billion a year in trade, which is twice as much money as they receive from aid. Actionaid argues that if Europe removes some of the protectionist aspects of its farm policy, the money spent on trade will be significantly reduced.

EU Trade Commission colleague in charge of development, Louis Michel, said that countries receiving development aid would see better results if they directed their donations toward their farm sectors. Michel also advocated the idea of French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier to set up “regional country markets” – especially in Africa – to pool farm resources by jointly managing rivers for irrigation and by creating collective grain storage.

“We should strive to come up with a targeted aid package for a specific region,” Louis Michel stated at a news conference.

Reuters reports that EU ministers are meeting later this year to negotiate a mini-reform of the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that should phase out safety-net public purchase of commodity stocks at fixed prices, and subsidies still linked to production volumes. CAP spends around 44 billion euros annually, which is about 40% of the EU’s whole yearly budget.

SS