MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2020) The European Union's new multi-year budget and 750 billion euro ($857 million) COVID-19 economic recovery fund lack ambition and fail to account for the scale of the global crisis caused by the pandemic, the Oxfam charity said on Tuesday.
"The recovery fund and long-term EU budget do not match the urgency of our current situation and the challenges ahead. Inequality within and beyond the EU is growing, and the recovery plan lacks ambition in addressing the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic and the looming food crisis," Marissa Ryan, head of Oxfam's office in the European Union, said in a press release.
The charity cited a reduction of 4 billion Euros ($4.6 billion) in funds that were previously earmarked for development cooperation and also criticized the lack of aid provision in the bloc's recovery fund.
"The cuts to the development aid budget will come at a real human cost. The pandemic is already pushing millions of people to the brink of starvation and increasing extreme poverty. Meanwhile in developing countries, health systems are ill equipped to respond," Ryan added.
After four days of heated negotiations in Brussels, EU leaders finally agreed on a new multi-year budget and COVID-19 economic recovery fund.
On Tuesday morning, European Council President Charles Michel announced that the deal will see the bloc's budget over the next seven years amount to 1.074 trillion euros ($1.228 trillion), with the addition of a recovery fund worth 750 billion euros.
