The European Parliament approved a report that opposes the drastic cuts to EU development aid for Latin-America proposed by the Commission. According to the MEP responsible for the report, Ricardo Cortés, MEPs do not support the radical approach proposed by the Commission, which is based solely on economic criteria and would deprive countries like Ecuador, Colombia and Peru of EU aid.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution in a plenary session which proposes do not reduce EU development aid to 11 middle-income countries in Latin American and the Caribbean under the 2014-2020 budget, as proposed by the European Commission. The resolution points to the huge problems still faced by countries in the region, despite political and economic advances in recent years. The European Parliament asked in June 2011 to increase 2014-2020 budget.

Among the problems that Latin America is still facing, one in three Latin Americans still live below the poverty line. Some of these middle-income countries are the most unequal in the world, MEPs stress, and some are among the most violent, continuing to suffer from drug-trafficking, organised crime, money-laundering, arms-trafficking and corruption.

The resolution underlines that poor countries are hit by problems in middle-income countries, which are a driving force for development and regional integration. MEPs call, therefore, for the specific needs of each Latin American country to be taken into account in allocating development aid, rather than income and gross domestic product.