Dwindling EU development aid spent on deporting refugees, museum gift shops

'Charity begins at home' goes the old maxim, and when it comes to aid for the third world, Europe very much adheres to this motto.

As the economic crisis pinches national budgets, EU member states' funds set aside for development are dwindling and increasingly being used instead as channels for public cash for domestic companies and promoting national vested interests rather than poverty reduction in the poorest of countries.

Some states are even counting the cost of deporting re...