The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) published the figures confirming that the European Union and its 27 member states remained the world's largest donor in 2012, providing more than half of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) reported by Development Assistance Committee (DAC). In 2012, the EU collective ODA decreased to €55.1 billion from €56.2 billion in 2011.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the economic crisis and severe budgetary constraints facing most developed countries have impacted global Official Development Assistance (ODA) levels negatively, resulting in a nominal decrease of more than €8 billion compared to 2011. The EU collective ODA decreased to €55.1 billion from €56.2 billion in 2011; or from 0.45% to 0.43% of EU gross national income (GNI). Even so, the European Union and its 27 member states remained the world's largest donor in 2012. In 2011, the EU official aid declined by about €500 million compared to 2010.

The OECD figures also show that the total ODA of the 27 EU member states alone decreased from 52.8 billion to 50.5 billion, or from 0.42 to 0.39% of GNI. Only four member states increased (Austria, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland) and seven maintained their ODA levels (Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, United Kingdom), while 16 member states reduced their effort.

In addition, four EU Member States continue to exceed the 0.7% ODA/ GNI mark (Denmark, Luxembourg, Sweden, Netherlands), with Denmark and Sweden aiming to reach 1% of GNI and Luxembourg having reached it in 2012. Also, despite remaining at their 0.56% level of 2011, the UK has confirmed reaching the 0.7% target in 2013. The OECD confirmed that reaching the target of 0.7% of EU collective GNI by 2015 would require almost doubling ODA, which requires very substantial effort by most member states. The additional EU ODA from the EIB own resources supports progress towards the collective target.