On Wednesday 7 November, the national ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) agreed on the proposal for a Council decision on the financial contributions to be paid by the member states to finance the European Development Fund (EDF) – the instrument outside the EU budget which finances development cooperation with the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) group of countries and the overseas countries and territories (OCTs).
This proposal notably involves the ceiling of the contribution for the 2020 financial year, the annual amount for the 2019 financial year, the first instalment for the 2019 financial year to be paid before 1 January 2019, and the indicative forecasts for the annual amount of the contributions expected for the financial years 2021-2022.
The UK abstained. This decision could be submitted for adoption at the General Affairs Council on Monday 12 November.
The UK furthermore expressed reservation about paying its contribution for the third instalment of the EDF for 2018. The reason for this is the discriminatory behaviour British NGOs apparently come up against "in tendering for EU programmes and in implementing EU development programmes in the ongoing programming", a source told EUROPE.
In a letter sent to the European Commission in August, the British authorities expressed concern at such treatment and asked for British NGOs to be involved in the development programmes again.
"We are still awaiting a response from the Commission. In the absence of assurances we did not think we could vote in favour. We have a commitment to the EDF. We hope this issue can be settled swiftly", the same source said. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)