Stefan Fule, the EU’s enlargement Commissioner, sets the record straight in a comprehensive response to Open Europe ’s report on EU aid to Mediterranean countries, and subsequent articles which appeared in The Sunday Times “EU’s Middle East aid vanishes” and the Daily Express “EU ‘wastes’ £12bn on Arab aid”.

http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/fule/headlines/news/2011/05/20110510_en.htm

Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development Policy, writes to the Sunday Times to set the record straight concerning inaccuracies in their article “Euro billions wasted in African failures”, 17th April 2011. The Commissioner explains that contrary to claims, accountability of EU aid is in fact extremely high and the Commission’s commitment to strong and effective management of programmes and spending, has been internationally recognised.

Sir,

I refer to the article published in your newspaper on Sunday 17th April, entitled “Euro billions
wasted in African failures”. The issues that are raised, and in particular the importance of
ensuring value for money from development spending, resulting in real alleviation of poverty
amongst the world’s poorest citizens, are of great importance. However, the picture that you
paint regarding the Commission’s work is far from accurate.

The article argues that “EU (…) gives billions to corrupt governments without checking how
the money is spent”. This is incorrect; the EU’s approach to development …