Bulgaria well below EU target for spending on official development assistance
Bulgaria is among the bottom three European Union countries in spending on official development assistance and remains well below the EU target for such spending, according to figures released on August 17 by statistics agency Eurostat.
Bulgaria spent less than 0.1 per cent of its gross national income (GNI) on official development assistance in 2016. The EU average is 0.51 per cent – in turn below the target set for the EU to spend 0.7 per cent of GNI on official development assistance by 2015.
The lowest proportion is spending by Croatia, with Cyprus next-last and Bulgaria third-lowest, going by Eurostat’s figures.
In 2016, the EU as a whole spent 75.5 billion euro on official development assistance. This represents 0.51 per cent of the EU’s GNI. This means that the EU has still not met its commitment, made in 2005, to spend 0.7 per cent of GNI on Official Development Assistance by 2015.
However, the EU’s ODA has increased for the fourth year in a row to reach its highest level to date. As a result, the EU has consolidated its place as the world’s leading aid donor in 2016.
In comparison, non-EU countries that are members of the Development Assistance Committee gave an average of 0.21 per cent of their GNI to development aid.
In 2016, just five EU member states gave 0.7 per cent or more of their gross national income to official development assistance: Luxembourg (one per cent), Sweden (0.94 per cent), Denmark (0.75 per cent), Germany and the United Kingdom (both 0.70 per cent), Eurostat said.
