A recent EU-commissioned opinion poll found that around 90% of Europeans still believe development is important, and that 72% of Europeans are in favour of honouring or going beyond existing aid commitments to the developing world.
· More than 92% of Irish respondents said that it was “important” to help people in developing countries, the fourth highest level of support for development cooperation among the 27 countries.
· Despite the economic crisis, 65% of Irish respondents found that we should exceed or at least honour our aid commitment (contrasted with 13% who argued it should be cut).
In other words, despite the crisis, people in Ireland do care about overseas aid.
“This poll clearly shows that citizens expect their governments and the EU Commission to dig deep for development financing”, said EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Karel De Gucht. “Even in the context of the economic crisis, I appeal again to the EU Member States to stick to their commitments to increase development aid up to € 69 billion by 2010 to meet the mid term target of the Millennium Development Goals”.
The Special Eurobarometer n°318 on “Development Aid in time of economic turmoil” was conducted in May-June 2009 and was aimed at assessing whether the economic downturn affected public support for development cooperation in European countries.
The entire report is available at: