Brussels, 18/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - Against all expectations and to the great satisfaction of the Swedish EU Council Presidency, the EU27 development ministers managed, on Tuesday 17 November in Brussels, to set out in writing in the unanimous conclusions the method that should be followed to give substance to the EU agenda aimed at increasing aid effectiveness in developing countries. The reticence shown by the new German minister, Dirk Niebel, towards this operational framework adopted for aid effectiveness (EUROPE 10010) was lifted thanks to a phone call from Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
There are three basic ingredients for this recipe: - cooperating in the breakdown of work (measures aimed at continuing implementation of the EU code of conduct on complementarity and division of labour in development policy); - using the national systems of partner countries as a priority; - and harmonising technical cooperation for heightened development of developing countries' capacities (institutions, systems and local expertise) without which the latter cannot fully master or manage the development process.
The above three areas of intervention constitute the first chapters of an operational framework that will evolve, the Council states, inviting member states and the Commission to begin without delay to implement the recommended measures both individually and together.
Gunilla Carlson, Sweden's Minister for Development Cooperation, who chaired the work, welcomed the breakthrough. “This framework will allow the EU to respect its commitments under the Paris declaration and the Accra action programme on development aid effectiveness. We must move forward more rapidly to implement this programme by coordinating the efforts of international donors. We now have a concrete instrument to speed up the rate of progress with a view to presenting concrete results at the high level forum to be held in Seoul in 2011”, she told reporters. She added: “Accra has defined the framework. We now have the modalities. This guide will be very useful for member states”. When asked about the reasons that convinced Germany to rally to the Council's conclusions, Ms Carlsson said the initial reticence of this member state was due to the fact that the new minister was very new to his post. “He had asked for time to reflect but neither he nor the government wanted to cause obstruction”, she explained.
More effective European aid could ensure €3 billion is not wasted each year
Karel De Gucht, European Development Commissioner, said the operational framework will be reviewed every six months by the Council as implementation requires a follow-up policy if it is to be in time, targeted, coordinated and effective. The commissioner seized the opportunity provided by the ministerial meeting to call on all member states to work together in order to prevent €3 billion in aid being wasted each year because of aid fragmentation (European donors are on average present in 73 countries, each being present in 8 sectors, and each partner country works with 7 European donors) causing pointless duplication and additional red tape. The commissioner's appeal follows upon a first version of an independent study entitled “Aid Effectiveness: benefits of a European approach”, which was presented during the European Development Days in Stockholm, Sweden. (A.N./transl.jl)