EU accused of threatening British aid firms with funding halt under no deal Brexit
2 min read
EU officials have been accused of wrongly warning British aid firms that they would lose out on funding in the event of a no deal Brexit.
According to the Guardian, disclaimers were inserted into aid contracts stating that UK NGOs would be removed from humanitarian projects should Britain crash out of the EU next year.
However, it has since emerged that many British organisations working in the field would still be entitled to the cash due to the UK’s membership of the intergovernmental body - the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Claire Godfrey, the head of policy and campaigns at Bond, the UK network that represents 400 international development NGOs, said: “We are very concerned that the European commission has misunderstood the eligibility criteria for UK NGOs to access funding from the EU in the event of a Brexit no-deal scenario.
“There is a real danger that UK NGOs will be both discouraged from applying and be discriminated against during the process, if the proper criteria are not used.
“Ultimately, it will be the people who benefit from UK NGOs humanitarian response who will bear the brunt of this if UK NGOs’ activities are diminished.”
A UK government spokesman said: “We are clear that this disclaimer must be removed by the European commission.
“As it stands, they are hindering British aid organisations’ ability to deliver the common goal of alleviating poverty, which would hit the world’s poorest people hardest.”
The officials caught up in the row work directly under Martin Selmayr, the most senior aide to the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker.
A source told the Guardian: “These warnings are in many cases legally inaccurate and are certainly an example of backsliding from the agreements the EU struck with the UK.
“We hear worrying reports of UK organisations being blocked from bidding, rejected for partnerships and having extensions to good programmes cut short.
“These legal notices might be a fun game for Martin Selmayr but they prevent some of the most vulnerable people on the planet from benefiting from the best aid possible.”
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