Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2013)881 - Amendment of Council Regulation 617/2007 on the 10th EDF European Development Fund under the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement for the implementation of the Bridging Facility

Please note

This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.

dossier COM(2013)881 - Amendment of Council Regulation 617/2007 on the 10th EDF European Development Fund under the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement ...
source COM(2013)881 EN
date 12-12-2013
The Internal Agreement establishing the eleventh European Development Fund (11th EDF) was signed by the Member States, meeting within the Council, in June 2013. This Internal Agreement will only enter into force after ratification by all the Member States. This process will most probably not be concluded before January 2014.

The Commission has proposed transitional measures (‘Bridging Facility’) to ensure the availability of funds for cooperation with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and with Overseas Countries and Territories, as well as for support expenditure, between January 2014 and the entry into force of the Internal Agreement establishing the 11th EDF. This Facility shall be financed from balances and decommitted funds of the 10th and previous EDFs. The funds committed under this Bridging Facility shall be accounted for under the 11th EDF.

The Commission has also adopted a proposal for a Regulation providing for implementation rules for the 11th EDF that integrate the new orientations of the EU development policy in particular those laid down in the Communication ‘Increasing the impact of EU Development Policy: an Agenda for Change’[1], and of the latest modifications of the Cotonou Agreement. This Regulation cannot be adopted by the Council before the entry into force of the 11th EDF Internal Agreement or before the adoption by the Council of a decision allowing for a provisional application of some of its provisions. In the light of the latest discussions in the Council, it is not expected that any of these processes will be concluded before January 2014.

It is appropriate that actions supported under the Bridging facilityare as soon as possible implemented using the same rules as those foreseen for the 11th EDF. Therefore, the Commission proposes that the Council Regulation on the implementation of the 10th EDF be modified in such a way that the implementing rules which will apply to the 11th EDF also apply for the operational and financial management of the Bridging Facility.

The negotiations for the 11th EDF implementation regulation are not yet concluded in the Council (and therefore the 11th EDF implementing rules are not yet stabilized). Hence, this proposal will include in its annex the text of the provisions for the 11th EDF once fixed, as soon as the abovementioned negotiations are over. In doing so, the unicity of rules for the implementation of the 11th EDF from 2014 to 2020 will be ensured.

The Commission therefore suggests that the Council adopts the attached Regulation, to be technically complemented in its annex in accordance with the previous paragraph.