Mr. Philip Lowe, the Director General of the European Commission Directorate for Development, DG VIII, outlined at the European Parliament this week, DG VIII's attempts at reorganisation and simplification of its development aid procedures.
He described the main objectives of DG VIII as poverty eradication and the integration of LDCs into the world economy. The Directorate will have a matrix organisation with sectoral policies on one hand and country units on the other. Sectoral policies will be broken down in two divisions - sustainable development, and trade and co-operation. Under the former will come issues such as poverty and gender and under the latter will be issues that are supposed to encourage integration into the world economy. Mr. Lowe said it was not necessary to have a single division for poverty as poverty eradication should be central to all of DG VIII's work.
This reorganisation is supposed to help DG VIII adapt to its impending loss of 213 staff to the new Commission Common Service for the Management of Aid, SCOOP, (DG VIII will now have in totality a staff of 400 administrative employees), and make Commission aid more effective. Among the policy changes designed to achieve greater effectiveness of aid is the merger of all European Development Funds, EDF, currently in operation, i.e. 6th, 7th and 8th, by the end of this year. Thus funds from the previous funds will be carried over to the 8th EDF. Mr. Lowe also announced the introduction of annual reviews of the situation and management of aid in all ACP countries (country reviews) upon which decisions will be taken in the provision of aid. This measure he said aims to move away from the limitations of 5 year programming of aid and provide more flexibility and dynamism in its provision. This should allow aid provision to better adapt to changing situations or new developments that may arise within the life of an EDF. The Brussels based EDF Committee, made up of representatives from all EU Member States and the Commission, will no longer have to look at every project worth 2 million ECU and over. Rather this will be done by the Commission after an examination of ACP annual country reports.
Answering question posed by MEPs, Mr. Lowe admitted that in order for the above mentioned policies to work, DG VIII would have to further decentralise, granting the Commission delegation more responsibilities to decide on programmes/projects and interact better with EU embassy staff in recipient countries. He said the Community should engage in better division of labour whereby each member of the Community would concentrate on the areas of development co-operation they do best (such as Nordic countries' efficiency in water and sanitary programmes). He described the Commission's own strengths as providing expertise in infrastructure development and in regional integration. The Commission will also attempt to make use of important work done by other donors such as that of the World Bank on poverty indicators rather than duplicate their efforts.
DG VIII's reorganisation plans were to be examined by the Commission this week.
2. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT REACTION TO FREEZE OF EU DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL BUDGET LINES
MEP Mr. Detlev Samland, the chair of the EP Budget Committee, said at this week's EP Development Committee, that a solution must be found to the suspension of EU budget lines concerning social and development issues before July 17, when a budgetary conciliation meeting takes place. Failing this, the EP would not allow the Council to unilaterally impose a stringent approach that disregarded the EP's priorities. MEP Ms Dührkop Dührkop (rapporteur for the budget) said the EP did not have room for manoeuvre on budget lines on which it has the final say. She said a solution could be found to the suspended mine clearance programme by including them in rehabilitation programmes.
The suspension of the budget lines follows the EU Court of Justice ruling of 12 May that clarified the legal requirements for the execution of the EU budget. In its ruling the Court stated that only non-significant EU actions can be executed without prior adoption of a legal base. (see PAF 91, 92)
3. AUSTRIAN PRESIDENCY OF THE EU
The main topics concerning development co-operation that Austria will deal with when it takes over the EU Presidency on July 1 are listed as: 1) the negotiations between the EU and the ACP; 2) EU-SADC (Southern African Development Community) relations; and 3) participation in the UN.
The EU-ACP negotiations are set to be the core aspect Austria's work on development. As it seems unlikely that the EU negotiating mandate will be finalised before the end of the British Presidency, this responsibility will be passed on to the Austrian Presidency. Other issues that may be passed on from the British to the Austrian Presidency are: a report by the Commission on the evaluation of the Community's total development co-operation; statements by the Commission on measures taken after HABITAT II - human settlements, and indigenous populations and tourism (Austria plans to adopt a resolution on tourism); progress reports by the Commission on combating anti personnel mines and the negotiation of the international foodstuffs convention.
During its tenure, Austria is proposing that emphasis be placed on: a) operational co-ordination between the EU Members States and the Commission - there will be a continuation of the British initiative on this and acceptance of conclusions of two meetings on operational co-ordination (see table below); and b) conflict management - Austria aims to draft concrete guidelines on the issue with a special theme of democratisation and human rights on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
For more information on the Austrian Presidency see http://www.bmaa.gv.at/aussenpolitik/eu-development.html.en and http://www.bmaa.gv.at/eu/eu-presidency.html.en . The full programme of the Presidency will not be completed before 30 June, after when you can consult http://www.eu.presidency.gv.at .
4. FORTHCOMING EVENTS DURING AUSTRIAN PRESIDENCY
20 - 21 July, Brussels EU Agricultural Minister meet 27 July - 9 September, Geneva Third annual session of the UN sponsored conference on disarmament August, Harare EU-SADC seminar on conflict prevention 5 - 6 September, Salzburg EU Foreign Affairs Ministers meet informally 19 - 22 September, St Wolfgang EU Agricultural Ministers meet (Austria) 28-30 September, Brussels EU Agricultural Ministers meet 1st half of October, Maputo EU-SADC conference on transport 12 October, Brussels Director Generals of EU Development Ministries meet (operational co-ordination on the agenda) 12 - 14 October, Vienna EU-SADC conference of parliamentarians 16 -17 October, EU informal summit on the future of the EU 3-4 November, Vienna EU-SADC ministerial conference 23 - 24 November, Brussels EU Agricultural Ministers meet 30 November EU Development Minister meet (operational co-ordination on the agenda 10 December, Vienna EU Foreign Affairs Ministers meet 14 - 16 December, Brussels EU Agricultural Ministers meet