EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE

Early day motion 271, tabled 11 December 2003 by Lord Field of Birkenhead (Labour). Signed by 23 members.

That this House congratulates the UK on being the second most generous donor of official development assistance within Europe and, indeed, being one of the largest providers of such aid worldwide; notes that a quarter of the Department for International Development's annual budget is absorbed by contributions to European development assistance; further notes, both from the International Development Committee's Second Report of Session 2001-02 and more recent DFID sources, that the EU is markedly less effective than Britain in channelling aid to low income countries; and calls for an urgent review of European development assistance and for the Government to explore how a higher proportion of UK aid might be delivered directly through DFID rather than EU programmes.

Signatures by party: Labour 17, Conservative 3, Labour/Co-operative 2, Liberal Democrat 1.