Editing European Union (section)

==== Humanitarian aid ====
{{Further|Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations}}

The [[ECHO (European Commission)|European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department]], or "ECHO", provides [[humanitarian aid]] from the EU to [[developing country|developing countries]]. In 2012, its budget amounted to {{Euro|874}}{{nbsp}}million, 51 per cent of the budget went to Africa and 20 per cent to Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Pacific, and 20 per cent to the Middle East and Mediterranean.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ECHO's finances |url=http://ec.europa.eu/echo/funding/finances_en.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718150202/http://ec.europa.eu/echo/funding/finances_en.htm |archive-date=18 July 2013 |website=ec.europa.eu |publisher=Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, [[European Commission]]}}</ref>

Humanitarian aid is financed directly by the budget (70 per cent) as part of the financial instruments for external action and also by the [[European Development Fund]] (30 per cent).<ref name="ODI">Mikaela Gavas 2010. [http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=5078&title=european-development-cooperation-financial-perspectives Financing European development cooperation: the Financial Perspectives 2014–2020.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110316022518/http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=5078&title=european-development-cooperation-financial-perspectives|date=16 March 2011}} London: [[Overseas Development Institute]]</ref> The EU's external action financing is divided into 'geographic' instruments and 'thematic' instruments.<ref name="ODI" /> The 'geographic' instruments provide aid through the [[Development Cooperation Instrument]] (DCI, {{Euro|16.9}}{{nbsp}}billion, 2007–2013), which must spend 95 per cent of its budget on [[official development assistance]] (ODA), and from the [[European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument]] (ENPI), which contains some relevant programmes.<ref name="ODI" /> The European Development Fund (EDF, {{Euro|22.7}}{{nbsp}}billion for the period 2008–2013 and {{Euro|30.5}}{{nbsp}}billion for the period 2014–2020) is made up of voluntary contributions by member states, but there is pressure to merge the EDF into the budget-financed instruments to encourage increased contributions to match the 0.7 per cent target and allow the [[European Parliament]] greater oversight.<ref name="ODI" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Homepage |url=https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/index_en |access-date=21 December 2022 |website=international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu |language=en}}</ref>

In 2016, the average among EU countries was 0.4 per cent and five had met or exceeded the 0.7 per cent target: Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden and the United Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 April 2017 |title=Development aid rises again in 2016 |url=http://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-data/ODA-2016-detailed-summary.pdf |access-date=23 December 2017 |publisher=OECD}}</ref>