“Spain and the EU are not keeping their promises in the field of cooperation”: the accusation is made by the Coordination of the non-governmental organizations for development of Spain (CONGDE), which has issued a document coinciding with the beginning of the Spanish presidency of the EU (1st January 2002), and denouncing the cutbacks in European aid allocated to the countries of the southern hemisphere. The Spanish NGOs recall that the “the average of the official aid to development allocated by the countries of the EU is currently 0.33% of GDP (gross domestic product), higher than the 0.22% allocated by Spain” (the lowest percentage in the last ten years) but still very far from the 0.7% of GDP requested by the United Nations. The Spanish NGOs reaffirm that the priority objective of cooperation must be the fight against poverty, through aid concentrated on education and health care, able to guarantee a sustainable development compatible with the creation of wealth and the protection of the ecosystem. “The European Union they declare must concentrate its efforts to ensure a political, social and economic context favourable to the eradication of poverty, that is at the origin of conflicts, and to secure a lasting peace between peoples”. CONGDE urges that the Spanish presidency take the necessary steps to ensure that “the objective of 0.7% of GDP be achieved by all member States by 2010”, as decided during the EU summit last November. It also asks the Spanish presidency to “develop a coherent common foreign policy” and “promote the ratification, by all member States, of the statute of the international penal tribunal”.
