Brussels, 05/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - "Development co-operation should remain a specific policy area, it must not become a political tool for the foreign policy" of the European Union, warned Sally Keeble, British Junior Minister for Development, at a press conference devoted in Brussels on 31 January to the fate facing the Union's development co-operation policy as developed by the first draft articles of the future Constitutional Treaty (on Wednesday, the presidium was completing the first phase of this work, see EUROPE of 4 February, p.5). Koos Richelle, Director General for Development at the European Commission, also expressed indignation at the presidium's draft articles which, he said, according to a press release, would effectively abolish the European Community's "shared competency" in many areas of development co-operation. According to these proposals, says the communiqué, the Commission would continue to negotiate trade relations with developing countries whilst having no role in broader development co-operation, through aid programmes, for example (you may recall that "shared competencies" are defined in Article 11 of the treaty's skeleton, presented by the Convention's presidium on 28 October). "20 years of development co-operation thinking appears to be lost in the Convention", commented Mr. Richelle, according to the same communiqué. Same concern on the pat of NGOs active in the field of development, like Simon Stocker, of Eurostep, who accuses the presidium of its lack of transparency, stating: "the Convention risks ending up in a club of 13 people taking decision affecting 453 million". Then, Helen O'Connell, of One World Action, complains: "Development co-operation should be determined by the rights and needs of the world's poorest people, not the EU's self-interests abroad. Europe's credibility as a global development player is at stake".