On Tuesday 22 November in Strasbourg, the European Commission and European External Action Service laid the groundwork for a new more efficient European development policy that is more adapted to today’s challenges.
This took the form of a new joint communication adopted by the College of Commissioners and is called the “European Development Consensus” which was adopted that day by the College of Commissioners.
It seeks to provide the orientations and shared priorities of the Commission, European Parliament and Council of the EU for guiding European development policy up to 2030 (see EUROPE 11672).
The Communication seeks to develop the framework and future orientations for European development policy by adapting it to the Sustainable Development Goals up to 2030, as well as the new security and migration challenges.
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, informed the press that, “The previous European Consensus goes back to about 10 years ago. The world has changed. The EU has evolved. Development policy is not charity. Investing in individuals is important to guaranteeing peace, prosperity and security in the world”. She pointed out that the EU and its member states were already the biggest donors of Public Development Aid (PDA) and humanitarian aid in the world and highlighted the impact that European aid could have if the EU respected its objective of collectively allocating 0.7% of GNP to PDA.
According to the High Representative, the two main novelties in the proposed Consensus are “the link between security and development” and “Migration and development”. Future development policy will continue to concentrate on the most vulnerable countries, without excluding cooperation with countries with intermediate revenues.
The Commission is proposing that the EU member states more systematically integrate economic, social and environmental elements of sustainable development in their development policies. The Commission is also proposing that they cooperate more closely on the basis of shared analyses, common strategies, joint aid programming and regular reports on the progress accomplished for increasing the credibility, efficiency and impact of aid. The Commissioner for International Co-operation and Development, Neven Mimica, expressed the hope that this new Consensus would be the subject of a joint declaration from the three European institutions in the first half of 2017 “so that it is ready to provide a response to the SDGs during the UN policy Forum on SDGs this July”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)