Additional funding for humanitarian aid at EU level!

These past months, VOICE has been working on the procedure establishing the EU's budget for 2024, as well as on the revision of the EU's long-term budget, or multiannual financial framework (MFF) . The process of the annual budget finally came to an end mid-November, after successful negotiations in the second meeting of the conciliation committee. An increase of €250 million in the humanitarian budget line was secured, bringing DG ECHO's initial 2024 humanitarian budget to €1.9 billion.

We were happy to see the level of attention given to the humanitarian budget, which benefitted from the highest increase secured during the negotiations this year. It is interesting to note that this €250 million increase is higher than the increases secured for humanitarian aid in the past two years, despite the shrinking resources at the EU level. The VOICE Secretariat will pursue advocacy efforts throughout the year, in collaboration with members.

Concomitantly, VOICE has been requesting additional humanitarian funding at the occasion of the revision of the EU's long-term budget, or multiannual financial framework (MFF). After some delays in the procedure, it is expected that the EU Member States will come to an agreement at the European Council meeting of December.