European Union

This page contains recent analysis on EU aid.
For earlier information click European Union

Major changes in EU aid
Does European aid reach the poor? The top 7 recipients of aid from the Commission are lower middle income countries (not low income or least developed countries). The priority being given to not-so-poor neighbours such as Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, 3 of the top 6 recipients in recent years, suggests a weak focus on the poorest countries.

In the past, European aid management has been fragmented, disbursement slow and the Commission's capacity on policy analysis and coordination has been weak. But following an evaluation and a March 2000 White Paper, in May 2000 the Commission announced a major reform process. See IP/00/480 at http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/news/20000516_en.htm

EC aid reform
As from Jan 2001, the EuropeAid Co-operation Office, whose homepage is http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/general/index_en.htm becomes responsible for implementing the major external aid programmes of the EU. This means that instead of aid under the European Community budget (to Asia and Latin America and the Mediterranean) being handled by one Directorate General and aid under European Development Fund (to Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific) being handled by another, EuropeAid now manages 80% of EU aid.

EuropeAid is chaired by senior External Relations Commissioner and former UK Development Minister Chris Patten. Development Commissioner and former Danish Aid Minister Poul Nielson is Chief Executive. Other external relations Commissioners Lamy, Verheugen and Solbes are on the EuropeAid Board. Though EuropeAid will manage implementation, responsibility for policy on allocations and programming will remain with the geographical departments of Directorates General for External Relations (known collectively as RELEX) and Development.

The ECDPM website www.oneworld.org/ecdpm contains a range of papers on aspects of EC aid including the progress of reform. ECDPM's paper Reforming European Aid: What do practitioners think? raises several questions - in particular asking whether the EU's approach to foreign policy, security and trade is causing the EU to move away from the wider concept of development towards a narrower, weaker and more technical concept of aid. ECDPM email info@ecdpm.org fax +31 43 350 2902.

From Lomé to Cotonou
After many months of negotiations, in June 2000 EU and ACP countries signed a successor agreement to the Lomé Convention in Cotonou, Benin. The original signing had been scheduled to be held in Fiji (selected because it was so remote that NGOs would not come to protest), but the military coup in Fiji forced a new venue & schedule.

ECDPM have produced a splendid loose-leaf Cotonou Infokit, providing a step by step guide which covers: Cotonou at a glance and basic facts; the history and evolution of EU & ACP cooperation; innovations in Cotonou (compared to Lomé); instruments and institutions; analysis of the trade, private sector and non-state provisions, as well as lots of other info. This pack provides a very accessible overview - fax + 31 (0) 43 350 2902 or visit ECDPM on the web.

Clara Mira Salama & Stephen Dearden have written Discussion Paper (no.20) on the The Cotonou Agreement for the European Development Policy Study Group of the UK DSA. See www.euforic.org/dsa

A special issue of the ACP-EU Courier (Sept 2000, ISSN 1013-7335) covers the detail of the agreement, Tel DG Development + 322 296 8330.

Accessing information on EU aid
In the past it has been difficult to access a lot of information on European Commission's development programmes, but one useful starting point is http://europa.eu.int/comm/development From here you can access a wide variety of official information.

Information on Civil Society, NGOs and good governance is at http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/sector/ngo/index_en.htm and the commissions operational guide to decentralised cooperation is at http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/sector/decentralised/orientation_en.pdf The Nov 2000 response of the UK government to the International Development Select Committees Report on the Effectiveness of EC Development Assistance, published Aug 2000, can be seen at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmintdev/669/66903.htm fax +44 (0) 20 7219 2891 email indcom@parliament.uk

A commentary on EU development policy from the European NGO coalition EUROSTEP can be seen at http://www.eurostep.org/euforce.htm

Evaluation of European Development Cooperation
If you are interested in looking in detail at the evaluation report on aid from the European Commission, then some starting points are as follows. For the full report see http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/evaluation/odi_report_en/index_en.htm

If you just want to browse the contents (in .pdf format) then visit http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/evaluation/odi_report_en/prelim.pdf

You can find a summary at http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/evaluation/odi_report_en/summary.pdf

As part of the reform process, (see Commission press release) an action plan has been drawn up giving a timetable for RELEX reform. This was available in April 2001 at http://europa.eu.int/comm/off/com/sec16052000/annex2_en.pdf but by mid May the web link did not seem to be working! Contact DI if you have difficulty with this.

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