On Monday 24 June in Luxembourg, the Council of the European Union approved its conclusions on the mid-term review of the EU's Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (‘NDICI-Global Europe’).
The European Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Development believe that NDICI is broadly fit for purpose and is achieving its objectives.
In addition, they note that by merging several external financing instruments of the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the ‘NDICI’' programme addresses the fragmentation of the previous financial architecture and represents a step forward in terms of clarity, efficiency and transparency of the EU's support to and cooperation with its partner countries.
However, the Council affirms the need to strengthen the coherence of EU development policies in order to achieve more effective development cooperation, taking into account the specific objectives of the NDICI and the EU's international commitments up to 2030.
In particular, the European ministers recommend taking account of the impact of EU policies on partner countries and tackling the “increased complexity” of access to funding for local players likely to benefit from it.
Last April, the S&D, the second largest political group in the European Parliament, pointed out the disparities between the development measures set out in the European Commission's annual action plans (‘AAPS’) and their practical implementation by the partner countries (see EUROPE 13389/37).
In May, six Green MEPs denounced serious misconduct by health establishments financed by the European Investment Bank in southern countries (see EUROPE 13418/11).
The EU Council conclusions follow the European Commission's report on the evaluation of the European Union's external financing instruments for the 2014-2020 (see EUROPE 10880/5) and 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 13341/1) MFFs.
See the conclusions of the Council of the EU: https://aeur.eu/f/csc
See the European Commission report: https://aeur.eu/f/csd (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)