Brussels, 22/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 20 September, the European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on second reading on the Instrument for Development Cooperation (IDC) - an advance through the efforts of the Finnish Presidency, described as historic by the European Parliament and welcomed by development NGO Eurostep.
The agreement meets Parliament demands on development cooperation architecture and priorities. Parliament succeeded in retaining its co-decision powers in deciding on geographical and thematic aid programmes for developing countries (which the Commission wanted to have decided under the committee procedure). In addition, the scope of the regulation will be restricted to developing countries, contrary to the Commission's original desire to extend cooperation to the industrialised countries of North America, the Far East and Australasia. The Commission will keep the Parliament and its development committee regularly informed about the activities of the committee which assists it in managing the IDC. Parliament will receive proposed country strategies and committee minutes. The Commission confirmed that it wanted to meet the Parliament for an in-depth discussion on country strategies and undertook to allocate 20% of geographical programmes to primary and secondary education, and to basic healthcare.
This agreement on the IDC regulation is the result of a marathon discussion between the two institutions, finally putting an end to several months of discord and should allow continuity in EU policy beyond 1st January 2007. It still has to be endorsed by the European Parliament and the Council.