The trillion dollar question — what next for EU financing for development?
Written by Christina Fenandez-Duran (Oxfam Interim Head of EU Office), Javier García de la Oliva (Head of Country Engagement and Transformation Europe and Americas at ActionAid International) and Jean Saldanha (Director at the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad)).
EU member states are feeling the heat to come up with a credible offer for the UN Financing for Development Conference, set to take place in Seville at the end of June.
The EU is under pressure to honour its commitments to multilateralism and stand up against attacks on sustainable development within the UN’s system.
The question is whether the EU will demonstrate the political will to do so, and whether Spain, as host country, can move the bloc forward. The EU’s current stance will become clearer when European foreign affairs ministers publish their council conclusions on financing for development next Monday (26 May).
Back in 2002, the EU played a crucial role in the successful negotiation of the first UN Conference on Financing for Development, the Monterrey Consensus.
Governments collectively agreed to raise national revenues through fair taxation, fulfil their aid commitments and tackle the obstacles posed by Global South debt, and the financial system itself.
So far, the EU’s ambition for Seville is a shadow of the political will shown in 2002. Global economic uncertainty, rising inequalities, and a debt crisis, exacerbated by development and climate emergencies, coupled with drastic aid budget cuts, make international cooperation more urgent than ever.