EU announces €1bn aid package for third-world farmers

The head of the European commission has announced that the EU will establish a €1bn aid package to boost agriculture in developing countries.

José Manuel Barroso said that the initiative was the result of a clear need for the EU to do more in terms of providing short-term solutions to the global rise in food prices.

“Although the EU has already put together some €550m of additional short-term measures for 2008, we need to do more,” he said in a press release on Monday.

“I am announcing today our intention to establish a €1bn euro facility to support agriculture in developing countries. This will aim to generate a strong and rapid agricultural supply response,” he added.

Under the scheme, most of the money would be spent on ways to increase production, on better fertilizers and seeds, for example.

The announcement comes as the EU appears with the leaders of the G8 industrialised countries at a summit in Hokkaido, Japan, where the first day has been dominated by discussions on aid to Africa.

Barroso said that decisive action by the G8 in dealing with urgent matters was necessary to regenerate public trust in the conference.

“We must show a sometimes sceptical public that we will find a way to deliver those commitments, including by interim points, such as 2010,” he said.

The package comes as part of the EU’s broader commitment to achieving the UN’s millenium development goals (MDGs), objectives aimed at substantially reducing third-world problems by 2015.

Barroso said that there was still much work to be done if the developed world is to achieve these targets, and that recent problems such as food prices may even hinder the progress made.

“The impact of high food prices is particularly severe for the world's poorest populations, and may indeed even put at risk our progress towards the MDGs,” he said.

“I am strongly pushing all EU member states to establish indicative timetables to illustrate how they will meet their agreed targets. We can do better, and we must do better.”

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