ECR European Conservatives and Reformists´ : Deva: EU development funding has reached a “crisis point”

ECR Spokesman on International Development, Nirj Deva MEP, has launched a blistering attack on the European Commission over the way in which the EU carries out international development funding.

His comments followed publication of an unofficial working document from the chair of the European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee, which found that half of the EU's annual development aid budget was missed, with projects significantly delayed or failing to achieve their objective.

It noted that 500 projects worth around €8.6bn were delayed and would not achieve their aims.

The EU is the world's biggest donor of international development aid, but the report claims that every second Euro spent by the EU does not achieve what it pays for.

In a debate with the International Development Commissioner, Neven Mimica, Mr Deva said: 'The findings of this document are quite simply a disaster.

'It makes it damningly clear that many EU funds on the ground are totally underperforming, and that money is being wasted in huge quantities.

'Quite frankly I would not be able to sleep at night if I was a Commissioner who received a report like this.

'We are now in a crisis point. This kind of mismanagement is frankly a betrayal of taxpayers' money.

'The saddest fact of all is that whilst all this incompetence is occurring, lives are being lost, needlessly, in some of the most vulnerable countries in the world.'