Rich nations should pay ‘fair share’ of humanitarian aid as needs surge – EU commissioner

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Lenarčič said that while humanitarian needs are surging due to conflicts, climate change and other crises, global aid is not keeping up with demand.

“The European Union, as the main donor, has been struggling to address these growing needs,” Lenarčič acknowledged. “The fact is that the responsibility for humanitarian funding is not being shared equitably.”

“The three main humanitarian donors in the world – which are the United States, Germany and the European Commission – account for almost two-thirds of all humanitarian funding. This is not sustainable and it’s not fair,” he added.

In May this year, the Council of the EU set a voluntary target for all of the bloc’s 27 member states to allocate 0.7% of their gross national income (GNI) to official development assistance (ODA), and at least 10% of this allocation — amounting to 0.07% of GNI — to humanitarian aid.

“If everybody in the EU and in the developed world would allocate that kind of funding for humanitarian aid, there would be probably no funding gap, which means there are some within the EU and outside that are not doing their fair share,” Lenarčič said.

But data suggests that many EU member states and major world economies are falling short of the 0.7% target for official development assistance. Only four of the 32 members of the OECD’s development assistance committee, which brings together the world’s largest donors of aid, met the target in 2022.

According to Lenarčič, the bloc needs to do its own homework by pressuring those lagging behind on humanitarian spending to pay up, before “reaching out” to other world economies who are evading their responsibility. 

“I specifically have in mind the member states of the OECD, the so-called club of developed rich countries. This group contains countries that have the capacity and not all of them contribute in accordance with this capacity to humanitarian aid,” he said.

“Some of them do, I have to say, for instance, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” he added, “but there are many others out there who could do more. And we will be working with our member states in reaching out to them, also by showing our own example. It’s important that we do our homework ourselves before we can motivate others.”

He also named G20 countries as other possible culprits, saying the G20 ambition of influencing world affairs should also come with a responsibility to assume an “equitable, fair share” of the humanitarian aid.

The United Kingdom, once seen as a pillar of global aid spending, controversially cut its development aid spending from 0.7% to 0.5% of GNI in November 2022, as a “temporary measure” in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Other countries which are “clinging onto the status of development country” despite significant recent economic growth, also need to assume their responsibilities, he explained.

Gaza bottlenecks persist

Speaking as the extended truce in the Gaza strip enters its final 48 hours, Lenarčič told reporters that persistent bottlenecks are continuing to hold back the flow of aid.

The European Commission has quadrupled its humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian territories to €100 million this year since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7th, and has sent at least 20 flights carrying almost 900 tonnes of supplies to the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

But according to Lenarčič, Israel’s inspection of trucks before they enter the besieged Gaza Strip is a major setback. 

Screening currently takes place at the Nitzana border crossing, which links Egypt with Israel. Trucks must then drive the three-hour round-trip to and from the Rafah crossing, a detour that is causing delays.

“The bottleneck is actually inspection procedures, notably the screening. And we have been calling for additional screening capacity to be put in place” he explained.

The inspections are designed to ensure no humanitarian cargo entering Gaza can be abused by Hamas. Israel has also severely limited the amount of fuel donations to avoid it being diverted towards military purposes.

“Even though Israel has recently allowed larger amounts of fuel to get into the territory, these quantities are still not sufficient for all the needs,”  Lenarčič said, adding that  ambulances, hospitals, water stations, desalination plants, water pumps, and bakeries all rely on fuel donations.

The commissioner also acknowledged it is “difficult” to argue that international humanitarian law is being respected in the conflict, referencing both Hamas’ massacre in Israeli communities on October 7th and the killing of over 15,000 innocent Palestinian civilians in around 50 days.

“I would find it difficult to argue that the criteria of protection and proportionality are being respected,” he said, adding that the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) should be the judge of whether international law has been breached.

The US and UK have both so far refrained from supporting a potential ICC mandate to investigate war crimes committed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, but Lenarčič suggested the EU would take a different position.

“What I can say is that EU has consistently supported the ICC and the work of the prosecutor’s office,” he said.