EU food aid for poor to come from national budgets?

Sawicki is in the Belgian capital for a meeting of EU agriculture ministers to try and break the deadlock over food aid in the EU budget for the next two years, which Poland wants to maintain at present levels but which is being blocked by several EU nations, lead by Germany.

In October, Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden blocked the renewal of a 500 million euros EU food aid scheme, cutting it by three quarters from 1 January.

The blocking nations were accused of showing "pure selfishness” said EU agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos.

Poland’s agriculture minister will be having talks with Ciolos to maintain the current level spent on food aid for the poor.

"This is a proposition which says that from 2014, all EU countries, must allocate the aid from their own budgets,” Minister Sawicki told reporters today.

"Eighteen million Europeans suffer from malnutrition […] and it is clear that the rich countries of the EU […] do not want to think about European aid for the poor," said Sawicki.

It is estimated that around 43 million people in the EU are at risk from “food poverty”, which, according to a World Health Organization definition, means that they can not afford one meal containing meat, or fish every second day.

In 2009, 440,000 tons of food benefited 18 million people in 19 EU states. (pg)

Source: PAP