The EU Council set a ceiling of 3.9 billion euro for the contributions from Member States to the European Development Fund (EDF) for 2011. This ceiling is €260 million less than the Commission estimated would be necessary according to its programmed support for that year.

As the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen enters its second week EU leaders have pledged 7.2 billion euro to aid developing countries adjust to climate change. However critics claim not enough new money is being committed. The EU explains that this figure will be a "stop-gap" measure, intended to provide urgent action before developing countries can gain access to a larger pool of funds which will be agreed at Copenhagen, but will not be available until 2013.

The EU's soon-to-be-created diplomatic corps, known as the European External Action Service (EEAS), is supposed to be launched in April but as yet has no budget. Although Member States have requested that the service be "budget-neutral", i.e. not requiring any additional budgetary resources, the Commission is already drafting budgetary amendments to provide for it.

On Wednesday 9 December, a Joint Conference of the European Parliament's Development Committee and the Commission on "Tax and development to fight poverty" was held to debate EU responses to the continuing problem of how weak tax systems hinder development in the world's poorest countries. Developing countries lose several hundred billion dollars a year due to tax evasion and avoidance.

A statement by Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, to mark this year's International Human Rights Day on Thursday 10 December, calls attention to the grave human rights situation around the world. Below is the full text of this statement.