Brussels, 21/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament discussed, Wednesday evening, reports concerning cooperation for development, and in particular that by Conceptio' Ferre (EPP Spain) on the complementarity of EU and Member States cooperation for development policy. The report affirms that the conceptual differences between Member States in terms of cooperation for development have prevented over the years to implement a coherent EU policy, reinforced by the political contributions of Member countries. Mrs Ferrer also criticised the Commission for the way in which it tackles the reforms of cooperation for development policy and insisted for this policy to be based on three "Cs": complementarity, coordination and coherence. As for the President of the Development Committee Joaquim Miranda (Portuguese Communist), he asserted that Community cooperation for development policy cannot be reduced 'to the smallest denominator of Member State policies". Noting that, each time there has been coordination between the positions of the Commission and the Member States, the results have been very positive, the MEPs have called on the High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, to study the possibility of EU/Member State cooperation within an international frameworks.
In the same debate, the Parliament discussed the report by Anders Wijkman (EPP Swedish) on the joint draft common regulation (approved by the Parliament/Council conciliation Committee aiming to promote the full integration of the environmental dimension into the development process of developing countries. The Parliament is consulted in third reading, according to he codecision procedure, and the rapporteur underlined that the regulation in question forms a "significant legal instrument" before replacing the regulation that expired at the end of 1999. Mr Wijkman underlined that, in conciliation, the Parliament was able to obtain a sufficient financing of its activities: in fact, the Council accepted to increase the budgetary allocation, for the 2000-2006 period, from EUR 50.4 to 93 million. The Council also proposed a compromise over a problem that regularly presents itself with the Parliament, that of the "comitology", by suggesting the intervention of a management committee solely for aid worth more than 2.5 million: otherwise, the Commission could itself decide without the Committee's intervention. Thus the rapporteur recommended to that the plenary approve the joint project, which it did on Thursday morning.
Through the Ferrer resolution, the European Parliament invites the Council and Commission to accelerate their works in terms of complementarity of EU and Member State development policy: they must intensify the exchanges of information and communication with the European Commission. Furthermore, it underlines that a prior condition for greater complementarity is "the decentralisation of decision making powers of the administrations responsible for cooperation for development", and calls on the Commission to present, in the form of a summary, its plans on this decentralisation process. According to the Parliament, after its communication on the complementarity, the European Commission should present a global text, encompassing complementarity, coherence and coordination, aiming to reinforce in a general manner the Community and bilateral development policies and thus give greater visibility to the Union" (which goes in the direction of the concerns expressed during the "Gyminch" type meeting in Evian: see EUROPE of 3 ad 4 September, pages 4 and 5). The Parliament recognises that, to improve the effectiveness of Community development aid, it is necessary to increase the human resources, which the EU allocates to the management of this aid, and also insists on the reinforcing of the Commission's means for the study and analysis in this area, while noting that the insufficiency of these means has lead the Commission to "use the work made by the bodies who do not have the same political and social sensitivity than the European Union.
I want to go to the fore of the issue of complementarity between EU and Member State actions, asserted at the end of the debate, the Commissioner responsible for cooperation for development, Poul Nielson, who underlined that the reform process for development policy "is progressing". "We know what battle to fight and how we will win, with your help", he added, while noting that the Commission should have sufficient resources (notably human) available, and that, it needs the Parliament's support. The Member States will have a "key part" in the discussions on political priorities in the field, but they must not be responsible for a sort of "micro-management of projects". The fear held by some MEPs that certain Member States want to "dismantle what we are doing" does not seem justified, also said Mr Nielson, while underlining that firm undertakings have been made in the framework of EDF and, more generally, in the financial forecasts: the European Union is the "most easily predicted and stable" donor for development aid, he concluded.