Brussels, 25/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - EU foreign affairs ministers gave their green light on Monday to releasing a billion “on the condition” that the EUR 14.8 billion financial envelope allocated to ACP (Africa/Caribbean/Pacific) countries in the 9th European Development fund (EDF) was disbursed. Since approval in December 1999 for the amount for these financial resources to be used in implementing the Cotonou Agreement, it has been pointed out that the use of this billion would depend on a positive preliminary evaluation of the EDF results by the Council. On the basis of the elements provided by the Commission in a communication last February, the Council “is pleased to point out that the EDF results have notably improved over the past five years with regard to appropriations and spending”. The Council was also pleased to note that since 2000 the quality and efficiency of the Community's external aid was “beginning to bear fruit”. The Council's opinion indicates that this progress has justified the release of these funds, as proposed by the European Commission. The Commission is therefore encouraged to go down this route. Nevertheless, the Council notices that the exercise of examining the results does not entirely satisfy the criteria it had defined and is calling on the Commission to deepen the analysis of the EDF's impact on ACP countries via key measurement indicators.
The Council explains that these orientations comply with the commitments made at the High Level Forum on Aid Efficiency at the OECD last March in Paris and should be taken into account in order to perfect the analysis during examination of the end of the EDF process in 2006, as well as for fund programming beyond the 9th EDF “in order to better appreciate the quality and impact of Community aid”.