Brussels, 29/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - €31.5 billion over seven years (2014-2020) is the level of the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) laid down by the EU in Brussels on Monday 28 May at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in its Development configuration, but it will be up to the joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers, which is due to meet in Brussels on 6 and 7 June, to finalise this offer to the partners of the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, and formally to adopt this new financial protocol to the Cotonou Agreement.
These funds will be made up of €29 billion of contributions from the member states of the EU, in accordance with a division key which will now be brought into line with the division key of contributions to the EU budget, plus €2.5 billion made available by the European Investment Bank (EIB) for subsidised loans. This was the subject of an agreement between the member states at the European Council in February on the multi-annual financial perspectives 2014-2020. The internal agreement between the governments of the 27 on the details of the 11th EDF, including the new division key for the contributions, is to be signed by the permanent representatives of the member states (Coreper) before the end of June.
It is worth noting that the EDF, which is managed by the European Commission, is a stand-alone budget which pays for the development cooperation of the EU with the 80 ACP states (Africa/Caribbean/Pacific) and with the overseas countries and territories (OCT). Its budgetisation, which has been on the agenda for years, will not happen before 2021. (AN/transl.fl)