EU not focusing aid on poverty, says Minister

International Development Minister Alan Duncan said the EU is failing to focus aid on poverty and suggested the Government could reclaim control of how the money is spent.

The remarks will delight many on the Conservative right who have been urging David Cameron to claw back powers and cash from Brussels.

The Prime Minister is also expected to face more pressure over Britain’s overall aid spending at the party’s conference in Birmingham next week.

One sixth of the Department for International Development’s (DfID) budget, around £1.6bn, is diverted to the EU’s EuropeAid vehicle.

But the Sunday Telegraph newspaper raised questions about projects receiving money from the pooled budget, with some £800,000 reportedly having been allocated to a water park being built in Morocco by the company behind Center Parcs. Britain has not considered the country a worthy candidate for bilateral aid for a decade.

Mr Duncan told the newspaper: “We share the people’s anger on this. We are forced to give money to the European Union. We ask them to focus aid on poverty but they don’t, and we have no choice in the matter.”

He said he hoped the process would be considered as part of the Government’s wider review of EU competencies and conduct.