Brussels, 05/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - By providing more than 55% of public development aid, the European Union is the leading aid donor in the world, but it must improve its aid efficiency by targeting it more on eradicating poverty, and simplifying decision-making procedures to implement the new Union development policy defined in November, said Council President Maj-Inger Klingvall, adding "we are on the right road". She was commenting on work covered by the last Development Council (see EUROPE of 1 June, p.10). In her view, the conclusions adopted by the Council on conflict prevention as a development policy instrument are in line with this aim. They stress that conflicts are not only the cause but also the consequence of poverty, and call for conflict prevention to be included in country by country strategy documents to guide both the Union's development programmes and common foreign and security policy activities. The Council president welcomed as progress along the road to greater effectiveness in development cooperation: -the guidelines defined by the ministers to enhance coordination between the European Union and the United Nations, strengthen the link between emergency aid, rehabilitation and long-term development, and integrate the environment dimension in development cooperation policy; as well as the commitment taken by the Commission to present each year to the Council a report on the assessment of progress in the reform of aid management. The first report will be presented in November, "to promote public debate on reform", said Commissioner Poul Nielson, who stressed the importance for the Commission of having "feedback from Member States" on efforts made.
Welcoming the Council's conclusions on the UN idea to create a world fund for health and action against AIDS, Mr Nielson felt that "before one can have a clear idea of financial commitments", there are many questions to be answered. "The essential problem is to ensure that funds mobilised will contribute to ensuring that aid effectively reaches those it is intended for", mainly through the establishment of a differentiated price system for LDC, and the development of their distribution capacities. The Commission's participation (Commissioners Nielson and Lamy) at a meeting end May with the main pharmaceutical industries to promote the establishment of an affordable price system for poor countries, has, he believes, "opened up roads for influencing this process".
A meeting between the donor community and the countries concerned was held during the Whitsun weekend to sketch out the broad lines of such a fund, the way it would be used and its financial mechanisms. "It will not be a fund for AIDS alone, but the provision of medicines against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis", specified Poul Nielson. The modification of the financial regulation, once adopted by the Parliament and Council, will be very useful as it will allow funding with programmes, but "in order to make a contribution to the fund, we shall need a study from our legal services to determine whether it is compatible with our commitments", added the Commissioner.
Answering questions on the state of progress of ratification of the Cotonou Agreement, another point discussed by the Council, Poul Nielson stressed that he had invited the Member States to do what is necessary to speed up the process. Denmark is the only Member State that has carried out this procedure, he said. Ten other Member States have given their assurance that ratification will be settled within one year.