Brussels, 20/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - Never in American living memory has development featured so highly on the agenda of the United States and never have opinions coincided so much between the EU and Washington on the priorities for their cooperation in this field, for the benefit of the multilateral agenda of President Obama. This was the view expressed by Katherine Monahan, the new USAID representative to the EU, bringing hope for more effective development cooperation at international level. She was speaking to a small group of European journalists in Brussels on Wednesday 20 October.
The new development agenda as defined by Barack Obama and presented in New York on 22 September at the US summit on the millennium development objectives (MDOs) “puts development at the same level as diplomacy and defence”, in the interests of national security and in the interests of the world. It is a “new, complex and innovative” policy in more ways than one, Monahan explained.
Wishing to go further, the American policy makes a priority of coordination between donors and coordination on the ground, “and it is here that the EU has a role to play”. In 2009, the EU and the United States together represented a total of “nearly 80% of all world aid and the EU provided two thirds of this aid. The United States will do their bit” because, to Barack Obama's mind, it is not just “a moral imperative, but strategic and economic issue”, she said.
American policy aims to “re-engage the multilateral institutions”. The division of the work, which is vital in this regard “in order to be more selective”, must be done “with the EU, the private sector and the development countries as genuine partners”. The United States, which is just taking its first steps, has “much to learn from the EU”, the American representative stressed: “We are very interested in the lessons learned from the code of conduct the EU adopted in 2007”. When asked what she feels is the most important field of intervention for the American development policy, Monahan's answer was healthcare. “We have a comparative advantage in this field”.
The American development agenda is also in favour of a new operational model. “All of our efforts aim to feed into long-term sustainable development”, which will require “focusing largely on economic growth, as an engine to drive the future and allow the developing countries to achieve the MDOs”.
The forthcoming EU-United States regular political dialogue meeting on development, which is scheduled for 4 November at the level of senior civil servants, will focus on food safety, climate change and the health MDO. These are the priorities of transatlantic cooperation. Development has become a recurring topic in talks between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the high representative of the EU, Catherine Ashton, and will be on the agenda of the EU-United States Lisbon summit of 20 November, Monahan announced, adding that she is impatient to find out more about the implications of the European External Action Service (EEAS) for the European leadership.
“The EU and the United States have never held such similar views. This is an exciting time”, said the American. She admitted, however, that when it comes to innovative funding for development, the United States “are looking into all options”, but “do not wish to focus on a tax on monetary transactions”, because "”this is a line in the sand for us”. (A.N./transl.fl)