Brussels, 14/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - In the prolongation of the policy debate they had in February on the reform of the management of the Union's external aid, the Foreign Ministers of the Fifteen on Monday examined progress made in this exercise aimed at the increased effectiveness and visibility of this aid and stressing the need to translate the goals of the reform into concrete action. "We have developed some aspects of the effectiveness of aid. Progress has been made. We are defining the limits and parameters of increased effectiveness and will continue our work", Council President Josep Piqué told the press at the end of the session.
The debate was fuelled by work undertaken by the preparatory groups within different Council formations (the Relex Group, responsible for examining the link between the co-ordination of interventions on the ground and the decision-making process in Brussels and, in the capitals, the Development Co-operation Group responsible for work on improving the quality of the aid with direct budgetary support, as well as deepening relations between the EU and the UN, as well as the Budgetary Committee responsible for examining mans of achieving greater budgetary flexibility, and the group of advisors for justice and home affairs), the intervention of the High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, on regional strategies and the oral report by Commissioner Chris Patten on co-ordination on the ground and the de-concentration of Commission structures for transferring responsibility from Brussels to delegations. Commissioner Patten also presented the latest results of pilot studies in four countries (Argentina, China, Morocco and Colombia) with a view to facilitating the assessment of actions by Member States of the Union in relation to other international actors. The Council will return to the subject in the autumn.