Today Publish What You Fund and 49 other civil society organisations, agencies and networks, urged EU development leaders to fulfill commitments made at the Accra High Level Forum, and to define a common European position on mutual accountability and transparency.

The letters were sent to Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development, and Ashton, High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy..

Both the AidWatch Report and Publish What You Fund Aid Transparency Assessment demonstrate a lack of transparency across Europe which “will affect the capacity to have an effective mutual accountability framework in place, and consequently curtail the role of civil society organisations to hold their governments accountable.”

The European leaders are advised to demonstrate renewed efforts in disclosing aid information in a timely and comprehensive manner, and in a common format that will allow it to be compared with the aid flows of others: “It is critical that this information is made available publicly within the framework of a common set of international standards so that the EU can compare and harmonise its efforts with other donors and align its aid with recipient governments’ systems.”

Without comparability, European aid cannot be allocated to best effect. We hope that Europe takes leadership on this important issue which will make aid more effective and governments more accountable to their citizens.

Read the letters:

High Representative Ashton;

Commissioner Piebalgs;

Commissioner Georgieva.

Update (31st January) Commissioners Piebalgs and Georgieva have replied:

Reply Letter from Commissioners Georgieva and Piebalgs