On Monday, the Chamber’s development cooperation commission convened to discuss the government’s current support model, which Minister Bettel recently put into question. The Greens, represented by MP Joëlle Welfring, thus demanded answers from Bettel, noting that they had been contacted by worried non-profits who fear that they will receive less support in the areas of education and awareness raising.
“By now, some labour agreements have already expired and apparently, two people have been let go. Small organisations in particular feel the lack of support”, noted Welfring. According to the Greens, 25 NGOs and close to 50 employees are affected by the change of course.
While Welfring spoke of panic in the sector, Bettel expressed disbelief over the supposed state of affairs: “I don’t understand how there can be panic if nothing has been decided yet. The people working on the issue also informed NGOs that there are daily meetings, and the latter showed themselves satisfied with out search for more coherence.”
Bettel went on to explain that at present, the minister in charge is the one deciding which educational awareness campaigns are being financed or not: “And I think that it would be important to take joint decisions with NGOs, to discuss, also with the Education Minister, because I think that we should cooperate with the ministry in charge.”
Opposition lawmakers were not satisfied with the explanations that the Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs provided. MP Franz Fayot of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP), who formerly held this very office, criticised Bettel for threatening to pull financing used to cover operating and personnel costs without knowing exactly what this entails.
MP David Wagner of The Left chimed in, criticising the plan to allocate more responsibility to the so-called Development Circle when it comes to awarding government support to individual organisations. The Pirate Party’s MP Sven Clement meanwhile labelled Bettel’s communication strategy a “catastrophe”.
