Annexes to COM(2007)158 - From Monterrey to the European Consensus on Development: honouring our commitments - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2007)158 - From Monterrey to the European Consensus on Development: honouring our commitments. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2007)158  |
| date | April 4, 2007 |
- a process to identify the partner countries’ needs on the basis of their own assessments and existing international mechanisms. The involvement of civil society and the private sector in this process is crucial and must be facilitated. Furthermore, the sustainability of measures and reforms backed by the EU must be guaranteed;
- more effective aid through the implementation of the announced reforms, in particular progress towards joint programming, the division of labour, alignment and more effective aid arrangements, such as budget aid and cofinancing;
- the constitution by the ACP regions of regional funds to cover needs identified in the context of the EPAs and to support regional integration by channelling EU aid in a coherent manner. Created in 2006, the Infrastructure Partnership for Africa is the first such initiative. A number of Member States are already contributing, and the others are invited to join this concerted effort.
3. THE QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF EU AID MUST IMPROVE – THE COMMISSION HAS PROPOSED A CODE OF CONDUCT ON DIVISION OF LABOUR[1]
The expansion and multiplication of development cooperation activities in recent years has resulted in a system which is complex and costly to manage for partner countries.
The harmonisation effort actively promoted by the Commission lies at the heart of the Paris Agenda on aid effectiveness, which the EU wholeheartedly endorsed.
There are three fundamental aspects:
- the division of labour. The Commission has proposed a voluntary and flexible EU code of conduct to promote complementarity between donors in the interests of greater effectiveness;
- ownership and the alignment of cooperation programmes on the partner countries’ strategies and procedures. Though enshrined in the Paris Declaration and the European Consensus, these principles are still far from being realised. Not only are countries’ budget cycles not respected but a welter of conditionalities undermine the continuity and predictability of aid. The Commission believes it is now time to apply the concept of a "contract" based on tangible results in relation to the Millennium Development Goals rather than the annual checking of each individual donor’s traditional conditionalities;
- aid modalities. Programme aid and budget aid must quickly become the preferred delivery methods, without excluding other aid modalities when they are more appropriate. The dispersion of aid across many small projects – as in Tanzania, where there are 600 projects of less than €1 million in the health sector alone – generates unnecessary costs and lessens effectiveness.
These reforms must take place against a backdrop of more decisive progress towards joint programming of bilateral and Community aid.
4. CONCLUSION
The EU has taken, at the very highest political level, ambitious development commitments by deciding to raise its aid gradually to a level of 0.7% of gross national income by 2015 (€164 per European citizen a year) and taking the requisite steps to increase the overall effectiveness of EU aid as a whole.
We need to move from words to deeds. This calls for the honouring of commitments and political will. There is no question of changing the institutional balance in the EU or increasing the Commission’s powers in the sphere of development. It is simply a matter of a stronger, more efficient EU that holds out better prospect for the weakest and most vulnerable people on the planet. To offer this prospect the EU has to act collectively.
[1] COM(2007) 72.