The EU Sails Away from International Cooperation with the Biggest Aid Cuts in a Decade
Yesterday, the OECD released the 2025 Official Development Assistance (ODA) early figures, confirming a worrying trend. For the third consecutive year, EU Member States are cutting their aid spending. In 2025, 17 EU Member States cut their ODA. Since 2024, EU Member States contributions have dropped by 9.9 per cent. These cuts will cause direct […]
Exploiting the persecution of Christians as a covert lever to spread hatred
Author: Gordan Bosanac During the discussion on the Croatian budget for 2021, the amendment of the ruling majority MP Marijana Petir attracted public attention, proposing the opening of a new item within the budget of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MVEP) – the part intended for international development cooperation. She called the item […]
Can the EU assert its leadership and truly deliver on gender equality in 2021 (and beyond)?
In this opinion piece, Vice President of CONCORD and EU Representative & Head of Office of CARE International, Céline Mias, takes a critical perspective on the EU’s actions on gender equality for the past year. With these insights, the article identifies 10 opportunities for the EU to demonstrate its urge to be a leader on […]
It’s not the end, it’s just the beginning: With COVID-19, now is the time to boost aid
Press release by CONCORD Europe: Brussels, 17 April 2020 – Early figures released yesterday by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show an increase of 1,4% in global development aid spending in 2019 compared to 2018. This change in donor countries’ official development assistance (ODA) levels can be attributed mainly to an increase in […]
CROSOL and CONCORD call the EU Foreign Affairs Council for global solidarity
CROSOL has sent a letter to the Croatian Minister of Foreign and European affairs, Gordan Grlić Radman ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) meeting regarding the EU’s response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The letters contains a list of recommendations drafted by CONCORD Europe and civil society organizations from all over EU. The Coronavirus […]
EU response to the COVID-19 in the Western Balkans
Original article can be found here.
Reaction of Croatian Forum 2020 towards the European Union’s actions aimed at combating the COVID-19 pandemic
In the circumstances of growing pandemic of COVID-19 coronavirus in Europe, and especially among the EU member states – we express our concerns by the reactions of member states which have, albeit somewhat understandably but not justifiably, irrationally focused on protecting their national interests, ignoring the fact that we are in the midst of a […]
Slight increase of global aid explained by rise of in-donor refugees’ costs
For two consecutive years, global development aid has increased, according to the latest figures released today by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). The 2016 statistics report an increase of 8.9% (USD 142.6 billion). However, 1.8% of this increase actually stayed in the donor country, including EU Member States, with relatively little effect on poverty eradication and sustainable development since it is used to cover in-donor costs to address the refugee crises. At the same time, net global bilateral ODA to least developed countries fell by 3.9% in 2016 (USD 24 billion).