Skip to main content
European Commission logo
EU Aid Explorer

About EU development assistance

Data Sources

The Explore section of the website allows users to select a data source on which the displayed information is based, each with inherent pros and cons. The users can choose a data source by clicking on one of the three “Sourcing Logic” buttons:

  • EC+IATI – comprises daily updated data of the European Commission and monthly updated data of the European Investment Bank and the EU Member states published to IATI (See Glossary for further details)
  • EC+OECD – comprises daily updated data of the European Commission and yearly updated data of the European Investment Bank and the EU Member states published to OECD (See Glossary for further details)
  • EU TRUST FUNDS – comprises daily updated data for the Trust Funds set-up by the European Commission (See Glossary for further details)

The EC+OECD data source (selected by default) should be used to perform a more robust statistical analysis as it is richer in terms of the donors and the donor data is more rigorously verified by a third party (OECD). It, however, lacks detailed information about projects (such as geo-locations, sustainable development goals, or results) and is usually only published towards the end of N+1.

The EC+IATI data source should be used to consult either the detailed information about projects (such as geo-locations, sustainable development goals, or results) or to find out more about the most recent Official Development Assistance funding by the EU (thanks to the monthly refresh). The high frequency of the information update and the absence of a third party verification is subject to a greater risk of imprecision. In addition, although the number of the EU donors joining the IATI initiative is growing, it is currently less complete than the EC+OECD.

Due to the abovementioned reasons, the EC+OECD and EC+IATI data sources will yield different results. Hence, the information should be treated with care and selected depending on your objectives.

The EU TRUST FUNDS data source shows detailed activities implemented by the EU Trust Funds. These activities are presented independently from the European Commission in order to avoid the double counting between the budget of the European Commission and the EU Trust Funds to which European Commission contributes. As such, the funding reported by the European Commission and the EU Trust Funds are not meant to be combined.

Scope

The Explore section of the website displays the gross Official Development Assistance (ODA) disbursements for the projects funded by the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, the EU Trust Funds, and the EU Member states as of 2007. This dataset can be explored from an aggregate perspective per Donor (e.g. European Commission, any particular EU Member state), Recipient (e.g. countries or regions receiving development / humanitarian support), Sector of activity (e.g. agriculture, energy) and Channel of delivery (e.g. recipient country government, UN) or their combination.

Business Rules

EU Aid Explorer uses publicly available data from the OECD or IATI websites as reported individually by each Member States and by the European Investment Bank. In order to provide a harmonised view for analysis, it was sometimes necessary to apply assumptions and changes to the original data set. Please discover more about the key changes to the data applied in EU Aid Explorer.

1 APRIL 2021
EU Aid Explorer Business Rules
English
(368.76 KB - PDF)
Download