Malta’s overseas development aid last year dipped to 0.11 per cent of Gross National Income, the lowest level since these figures started being published by the EU in 2004.
According to the European Commission’s preliminary figures released yesterday, Malta’s Official Development Assistance – aimed at helping sub-standard and poor countries – reached €7 million in 2010, €3 million less than 2009 and 0.06 per cent of GNI short of Malta’s binding commitment.
This is the lowest level since Malta joined the EU, both in percentage of GNI and in actual money terms. In 2004 – its first year of EU membership –the contribution amounted to just 0.12 per cent of GNI.
Sources close to the Commission told The Times that the low levels registered by Malta in 2010 “may be a result of the global recession”. However, the EU executive was expecting more details from the Maltese government in the coming weeks to explain this dip.
A government spokesman yesterday emphasised the figures were only “preliminary”. He said: “The information given to the Commission is provisional and subject to revision. The Foreign Affairs Ministry is still waiting for other ministries to update their disbursements to compile and finalise ODA contributions for 2010.
“By the end of April, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will be in a position to finalise and report Malta’s (definite) contribution for 2010.”
Malta had agreed to binding EU commitments on ODA. By 2010 it was supposed to reach 0.17 per cent of GNI, increasing to 0.33 per cent by 2015. The “old” 15 member states had higher targets.
Ironically, during 2008 and 2009, the worst years of the recession, Malta had surpassed its 2010 benchmark commitments and it was only last year that its contribution registered a sharp dip.
Still, when compared to the other 11 new member states, Malta’s aid in 2010 was the fourth best, surpassed only by Cyprus, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
Overall, the figures show that EU aid last year rose by about €4.5 billion from 2009, reaching a total of €53.8 billion, confirming the EU’s position as the largest and most generous donor of official development assistance; providing more than half of global official aid.
However, according to Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, this is still not enough and a substantial collective effort is necessary to achieve the EU’s general goal of 0.7 per cent of GNI by 2015, to which member states are committed.
Although substantially increasing its commitments over the years, except in 2010, Malta has been criticised by NGOs in the past for its lack of transparency in its ODA commitments.
Last year, the Maltese development aid NGO, Skop (Solidarjeta’ u Koperazzjoni), expressed its concern about potential aid inflation, mainly through the reporting of expenses.