The European Union is working to rethink how it spends its foreign aid, with the aim of prioritizing security, migration and its own economic interests.
“In a world where investments, infrastructure and supply chains have become instruments of power, foreign policy cannot afford to be sentimental,†Jozef SÃkela, commissioner for international partnerships, said on Monday on the eve of a meeting of government ministers. EU development.
According to the European Commission’s proposal for the 2028-2034 budget cycle, the EU would allocate around 200 billion euros to the “Global Europe” instrument for development cooperation, humanitarian aid and neighborhood policy. The plan includes a 25 billion euro fund for rapid emergency responses, while a separate 100 billion euro facility for Ukraine would be off-budget.
The Commission’s proposal consolidates several existing instruments into a single fund and removes thematic spending targets, meaning that specific targets in areas such as climate or gender equality would disappear in favor of greater flexibility.
The EU’s “Global Gateway” strategy – launched in 2021 and presented as the Union’s response to the Chinese “Belt and Road” initiative – remains at the heart of concerns. In this context, the EU finances projects in the areas of infrastructure, energy, health and digital technology on a global scale, with the European executive affirming that more than 300 billion euros d’investissements ont déjà été mobilisés.
Otherwise, why would we?
As part of “Global Gateway”, Brussels also strives to use its funds to support European businesses and Europe’s economic interests.
Regarding securing access to critical raw materials, “there is obviously a link with European supplies”, that is to say the purchase of minerals or metals for Europe, a déclaré the head of the Commission’s development department to European deputies in 2024. “Why would we do it if not to guarantee European sales? But the investments we make aim for local valorization [l'extraction et la transformation des matériaux]. We do this in a socially and environmentally sustainable way, and we create local jobs and local added value. HAS”
Furthermore, SÃkela a récemment announced that a “European preference”, aimed at ensuring that European companies win tenders for EU-backed projects, would be included in future EU aid – although this approach has prompted des réactions mitigées among European deputies.
“There is a clear shift towards a more geopolitical, transactional and interest-driven approach to EU external action,†said Euractiv Alexei Jones, who heads the EU’s foreign and development policy department at the think tank European Center for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) .
He considers this change as a “transition from a development instrument with geopolitical ambitions to a geopolitical instrument accompanied by guarantees in terms of development”.
Money, but on certain conditions
While the ambition of the proposal has been widely welcomed, critics warn that the new approach risks sidelining the EU’s traditional needs-based development model in favor of more transactional partnerships linked to the EU’s strategic interests.
VOICE, a European network of humanitarian NGOs, warned that the proposal risks “resituating humanitarian action within the framework of broader foreign and economic policy objectives, instead of maintaining it as a response strictly based on needs and principles.”
Other groups, including the European Parliament, have called for the reestablishment of targets for the share of spending on issues such as climate change, arguing that this would help strike a balance between flexibility and accountability.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, this week defended the new direction of EU external aid. On Monday, she argued that the Union must be “more strategic” and align its partnerships in terms of aid, trade and security both on the needs of partners and on Europe’s own interests “to be a geopolitical actor”.
Yet what exactly the EU means by strategic and mutual interests remains unclear, Jones stressed. “These concepts occupy an increasingly central place in the EU’s external action, but often remain politically vague. HAS”
(vc, bw)
