Urmas Paet, a member of the European Parliament, said at the Development Cooperation Conference organised by the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute in Tallinn, that Estonia must widen the geographical scope of the aid projects in the coming years and must increase its contribution to humanitarian aid, because there are more and more crises and their scope is growing.
Paet stated that we need to continue offering partnership countries our reform experience and e-government solutions, but at the same time we should widen the geographical scope of beneficiary countries. „First of all the key words here should be the reduction of poverty, but we also have to bear in mind Estonias wish to run for the UN Security Council membership for the year 2019 and it helps if Estonia has a reputation of a state that cares.“
Already next year Estonia needs to contribute more to the humanitarian aid since the budget of Estonian development and humanitarian aid increases. „Unfortunately more and more help is needed by those that have fled from the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and many other places. Estonia can and must help these people more already next year. Estonia is a responsible member of an International community,“ Paet said.