Conditional development aid

Foreign Minister Michael Frendo has been quoted on a number of occasions as saying that Malta wants development aid to be subject to policies regarding migration and asylum seekers. During the next General Affairs and External Relations Council meeting the Development Policy Statement ought to be finalised and Dr Frendo is intending to push for conditionality in development aid.

This has shocked the NGO community, both in Malta and throughout Europe. Earlier this year, the public consultation held by the Development Commission on the future of EU development policy showed general agreement on the fact that "development money should not be used to resolve migration issues nor be contingent on migration policy".

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel has also stated publicly that "there can be no question of making development policy and aid dependent on the aims of migration policy". So, if member states agree to Malta's proposal, they will be going against both public opinion and assertions by the Development Commissioner.

Malta is still in the initial stages of getting to grips with development policy, both on a local level and on a wider European level. The first-ever National Development Policy ought to be published by the end of this year and Malta has become increasingly active on the European scene through the Council of Ministers and otherwise. This is in itself something very positive.

It would however be a big shame if the first visible contribution from the Maltese government would succeed in including a new conditionality on development aid. It is in practice tantamount to punishing the poor for any perceived lack of compliance from their national governments. It is yet another excuse not to keep our promises of delivering on the Millennium Development Goals. It would be still another lost opportunity to help people organise themselves to demand their entitlements, including landless people, factory workers, farmers, fisher folk and people living with HIV&AIDS.

Dr Frendo ought instead to work to ensure that the EU's asylum and migration policies contribute to the objective of poverty eradication while guaranteeing that they will not draw scarce resources from development budgets.

I do hope that the EU ministers agree on a set of new guidelines that put poverty eradication at the heart of it all. The meeting is an opportunity for the EU to articulate a vision of Europe as a community of states, which collectively honours its shared values, which recognises its shared responsibilities in the global community and which manifests itself in word and deed as a "responsible Europe".

If, however, Malta insists on using its veto, it would be better to have no consensus at all rather than to have a "European consensus on development" under these conditions, which would not prioritise the needs of poor people but put them on a level below EU interests on migration. The poor would be better off if the EU were to reject Dr Frendo's position!