Catholic charities across the UK have warned they are likely to face severe budget cuts that will affect their ability to support vulnerable people, following Britain’s decision to leave the EU.
The Scottish International Aid Fund (SCIAF) has warned that it will lose nearly one million pounds if EU funding contracts are withdrawn immediately, following last week’s vote.
SCIAF currently has three EU grants totalling £909,000, funding work in Nicaragua, Colombia and South Sudan. The grants run until 2018, but it is as yet unknown whether the charity could lose the funding earlier, explained Alastair Dutton, director of SCIAF.
Ten per cent of SCIAF’s total income comes from the EU, added Mr Dutton. The charity will be forced to scale back its work if this is cut. “This will hurt the very people we exist to serve,” he added.
Mr Dutton said SCIAF and other charities were likely to seek government help to fill the shortfall, but felt this support was not guaranteed. Alternative funding sources were possible, including alternative EU funding, but likely to be extremely be competitive, he added.
Many members of Caritas Europa, of which the UK Caritas groups CSAN, SCIAF and Cafod are a part, are likely to be receiving EU aid grants for development work overseas, said Shannon Pfohman, head of Policy and Advocacy at Caritas Europa. “This [funding] would presumably be withdrawn, which is very worrying considering the important work our members in the UK are doing,” she said.
All the UK Caritas members would be likely to face severe budget cuts following Brexit, whether or not they were reliant on development aid grants, said Ms Phohman. “Even the membership fees these organisations pay to Caritas Europa will likely be impacted should their overall budget’s decrease,” she added.
Cafod said they currently receive around five per cent of their income from EU institutions and EU member states, yet pointed out that countries outside of the EU were still able to obtain EU grants.
“While that funding is vital for our humanitarian work there are countries, such as Norway, who are able to access EU funding without being a member of the EU,” said Neil Thorns, Director of Advocacy at Cafod in an official statement released on 27 June.
“In reality, it is too early to say what the impact will be on Cafod as a result of the UK leaving the EU,” said the statement.
However, the aid organisation did highlight concerns regarding the role the UK will be able to play in climate change campaigning if they are to lose their place within the progressive EU bloc.
Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) said they plan to take a survey of members to see how many of them receive EU funds.
Bishop William Kenney, spokesman for European affairs of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, and former president of Caritas Europa, said he believed it was possible that the current level of aid could be maintained through other sources.
Loading ...
