Employment package to be mostly covered by money from development aid funds

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The government has discovered a way to finance the EUR 200 million employment package which is needed due to the recession.
      Most of the funds are to be taken from the development aid appropriation.
      The government agreed already in the spring to cut the appropriations of ministries by a total of EUR 200 million and to use the funds for employment.
      Now it seems that the largest individual source of money will be development cooperation funding. The remaining sum will be covered by cutting the administrative expenses of ministries.
     
The Ministry of Finance has initiated the move but the issue has been under discussion in the government without creating any major conflict.
      ”I do not know whether anybody would be willing to discuss an even bigger sum, but in the end we are talking about EUR 80 million, which is roughly equal to next year’s growth” , says Minister of Labour Anni Sinnemäki, the chair of the Green League.
      In an interview with Turun Sanomat last Friday, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen (Centre) promised that he would try to prevent the government from touching the development aid funds.
      On Tuesday, Väyrynen was no longer willing to comment on the issue.
     
The size of development aid funds is not to decline in the same proportion as money is transferred to the employment package, as some new cost items will also be counted as development aid.
      The aim is to regard the costs accruing from the reception of refugees as funds that have been used for development aid.
      According to Finland's Service Centre for Development Cooperation (KEPA), the total of such funds could be as much as EUR 20 million.
      In this way the funds used for development cooperation can be calculated to be larger even though some of the money is used in Finland instead of developing countries.
      Particularly Minister of Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors (Swedish People’s Party) has been pressing for the new definition.
     
The fact that the development aid funds include some "loose" money was noticed when the share of these funds in the GNP started to climb to more than the 0.51 per cent goal set for next year.
      The proposed new definition implies that there would be less money for the needs of ”actual development cooperation”.
      According to the definitions set by the United Nations, refugee costs can be accepted as development aid, if the refugees in question come from certain countries.
      Until now, Finland has never counted refugee costs as development aid.
      In addition, the proportion of refugee reception costs in development aid funds could be increased on the grounds that the number of refugees has increased, Sinnemäki noted.
      ”If a major part of next year’s growth were used for this purpose, the actual development cooperation with for example Tanzania would not increase at all”, Sinnemäki added.
     
The Green League takes an extremely positive attitude toward development aid, which is why Sinnemäki had to consider carefully how she could justify the Greens’ readiness to accept a decision that would cut actual development aid funds.
      ”We should be able to secure an increase in the development aid appropriations, and to raise the size of employment funds significantly, we should be able to make stimulating investments, while the costs accruing from the reception of refugees are growing in any case. All these requirements among many others should be fitted together”, Sinnemäki continued.
     
KEPA regards the plans to cut development aid funds as a shock, as the need for development aid is growing constantly due to the economic, climate, and food crises.
      The government is to make a final decision on the matter in its budgetary talks next week at the latest.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki to set up two new refugee reception centres (13.3.2009)

See also:
  Foreign Ministry fears that goals of development aid funding may not be met (17.2.2006)

Links:
  Service Centre for Development Cooperation (KEPA)

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