ONE of the questions that would have passed through the minds of many government leaders in developing countries as 2011 came down to closure was how would the ongoing financial crisis in Europe and other parts of the world impact on developmental aid. And so it was most heartening to learn from the Head of the Caribbean Unit of the European External Action Service (EEAS) relations with CARICOM countries, Mr. John Caloghirou that the current economic crisis in Europe will have no adverse effect on the disbursement of funds by the European Union (EU) in its development cooperation with members of the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries, including Guyana.
He said the present financial protocol and financial cycle of the Cotonou Agreement runs through 2013 and allocations from that to beneficiaries have been agreed and the money is flowing at the rate which the absorption capacity allows.
“These are funds which are earmarked for Guyana and the other Caribbean countries and, definitely, will not be affected by the crisis in Europe,” the diplomat reiterated.
Caloghirou said discussions are ongoing on the post-2013 Cotonou Agreement, which will be its last seven years, to fix the global envelope for the whole ACP family.
According to him, the existing financial protocol, known as the 10th European Development Fund (EDF), was 23 billion Euros and from what he had heard of the continuing talks, the next financial protocol will exceed this amount.
“In the new protocol, there will be the distribution of allocations per country and per region, which are based on a number of criteria and these will be the objects of discussion between now and 2013, so that they can be part of the new protocol,“ he explained.
Caloghirou maintained he does not expect that the financial crisis affecting Europe will impact on development cooperation which Europe recognises as an important part of the EU’s commitment in the international arena.
Head of the EU Delegation to Guyana, Ambassador Robert Kopecky, who is also accredited to Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dutch overseas countries and territories, assured, as well, that no change is expected, speculated that the allocations may be even bigger because the EU has committed 0.7 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for development cooperation.
“The 0.7 percent means, in the mid and long-term perspective, that more money is committed and dedicated to development cooperation. And it will grow in the future since there will be a bigger output of the GDP of the member state countries for this activity,” Kopecky said.
Having taken up his post in December last, he said he is very happy with the level of execution of EU-funded projects locally.
In Guyana’s case the EU’s financial support is crucial because it is providing assistance in the critical area of sea defence rehabilitation which is vital to us, particularly in the context of climate change and rising sea levels.
In this regard, it was also encouraging to hear from Ambassador Kopecky that 90 percent of EU-funded projects here  are being executed in a very professional way, even the sea defence jobs which had been the source of some concern a few weeks ago.
He said he was very happy to observe the commitment of the contractor, B.K International, to meet the deadlines and so guarantee that the funds for the project will be dedicated and fully disbursed to Guyana.
It should be noted that the EU has a moral obligation to provide development assistance to countries in this region as historically Europe had plundered them during the long period of colonisation and in more recent times it unilaterally ended the Sugar Protocol which resulted in drastic prices for sugar emanating from here to Europe. This forced many countries to opt out of sugar production, with Guyana and Belize being the only survivors.