The European Union plans to review multibillion-dollar foreign aid in order to better align its distribution with the bloc’s foreign policy priorities. About this informs Bloomberg.
The European Commission aims to make aid more targeted and adapted to the needs of partners, strengthening the transactional approach. The main goal is to reform the financing so that it contributes to the strategic interests of the EU, in particular, strengthening alliances with like-minded countries, ensuring access to critical resources and controlling migration flows.
The draft document, which may still undergo changes before the official presentation, indicates a significant burden on the EU budget, which traditionally amounts to about 1% of GDP. Funding should cover a wide range of needs, from environmental initiatives to defense. In the coming weeks, the European Commission will present proposals for optimizing the next seven-year budget for 2028-2034.
These changes coincide with Donald Trump’s decision to eliminate the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which annually channels tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid. The EU, together with its member states, remains the world’s largest donor of international aid, providing almost €96 billion ($99 billion) in 2023, while the US spent about $72 billion.
