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Low Hanging Fruit. Central Europe and Development Aid for Africapoliticians it holds true that God is high above and Brussels is far away, which is why promisesmade in vulnerable moments shouldn’t be taken seriously. Especially when those towhom such promises were made are weak and without a voice. In terms of numbers thismeans that the funds Slovakia has provided for development assistance have developed asdescribed below: 212The Slovak Republic providedIn 2004 €30.2 million, or 0.07 % GDPIn 2005 €57.7 million 0.12 % GDPIn 2006 €54.3 million 0.10 % GDPIn 2007 €54.8 million 0.09 % GDPIn 2008 €65.4 million 0.10 % GDPIn 2009 €54.0 million 0.086 % GDPIn 2010 €55.8 million 0.085 % GDPThis meant that the Slovak Republic only met its international obligation in 2010 at a levelof 50 % whereby such aid has not increased since 2008 and conversely it has fallen by 15 %.The trend of stagnation and decline began immediately after our entry into the EuropeanUnion, despite the fact this was accompanied by rapid economic growth. The jump from 0.07to 0.12 % of GDP in 2005 and small increase in aid in 2008 were the result of debt forgiveness(primarily receivables that the Slovak Republic inherited during the breakup of the formerCzechoslovakia) and the incorporation of these funds in the development assistance statistics.In 2005 the Slovak Republic forgave debts held against Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, Albaniaand Liberia and Liberia again in 2008 for the last possible time. The irony of this improvementin the figures for Slovak ODA is that in both years the Slovak Republic forgave debts for Libyaas well, an oil-rich dictatorship at the time under the iron grasp of Muammar Gaddafi.Unfortunately the percentage of ODA provided by Slovakia is at the tail end even whencompared to the twelve new members of the EU. In 2010 Cyprus gave development aidtotalling 0.2 % of its GDP, Slovenia 0.13 %, the Czech Republic 0.12 %, Malta 0.11 %, Estoniaand Lithuania each at 0.10 %, crisis wracked Hungary at 0.09 %, poor Bulgaria at 0.9 %—andhere it comes!—Slovakia at 0.085 % of GDP. Only Poland, Romania and Latvia lagged behindSlovakia, which its politicians and the media are all quick to call the “tiger” of central Europe.Given the small share of ODA in terms of our GDP, a total of around €56 million forofficial development assistance in 2010 may seem relatively high. After all, with that kindof money, you could get a lot done in Africa. That impression only lasts until we look moreclosely at these figures.212 All of the numbers quoted are from the work of Nora Beňákova titled “SlovakAid—an UnemployedForeign Policy Tool” (SlovakAid—nevyužitý nástroj zahraničnej politiky) published in the InternationalIssues and Slovak Foreign Policy Affairs magazine issued no. 3/2010 and from the MVRO publication“Slovak Development Aid in 2010” (Slovenská rozvojová pomoc v roku 2010) from September 2010.247