UN Warns EU Against Cutting International Aid in Next Budget

“It’s an easy target. It’s much more easy to explain to the taxpayers that we are going to spend less money abroad,” Jean-Nicolas Beuze, the UNHCR’s representative to the EU, told AFP in an interview on Oct. 13.

“There is a short-sighted view of saying we are going to make savings by spending less abroad, but of course this will have negative consequences on our prosperity and our stability and security.”

EU leaders will wrangle over the 2028-2034 budget at a summit in Brussels from Oct. 15 as they push to reach a deal by Christmas.

Ireland, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, last week suggested shaving some 140 billion euros ($156 billion) off an earlier 2-trillion-euro proposal for the overall budget.

But that failed to satisfy a group of so-called “frugal” countries led by Germany, who are arguing for deeper cuts at a time that national budgets are under strain.

Foreign aid already looks like it could be on the chopping block.

Ireland has put forward cutting the part that covers international aid by 17 percent, while largely leaving sensitive areas like funding for EU farmers untouched.

The UNHCR representative warned against cutting both humanitarian aid and broader development funding.

“Cutting the humanitarian aid would have an immediate and visible impact. It means that parents won’t be able to put food on the table, and children won’t go to school,” he said, pointing to a potential increase in refugees heading to Europe as a consequence.

“But we need the same efforts and focus on development if we want to get out of this vicious circle of creating dependency.”