DEVELOPMENT-EUROPE: New Institution To Manage EU External Aid

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jaya Ramachandran

BRUSSELS, Dec 29 2000 (IPS) - The European Union, comprising of world’s major donor nations, has decided to entrust a new institution with the management of its international assistance budget, which amounted to 9.6 billion Euro this year.

Named the Europe Aid Co-operation Office, the new body starts its work next Tuesday.

The Office will manage 80 per cent of the EU’s external assistance, amounting to 9.6 billion Euros every year in aid projects around the world.

The 15-nation EU is the world’s largest donor of international aid. It is present in more than 150 countries on five continents and is responsible for 10 per cent of all Official Development Assistance (ODA) world-wide.

Of the 9,6 billion Euros the EU spent on external aid this year, 5,3 billion came from the Commission’s budget and 4,3 billion were provided by the European Development Fund.

An enormous number of projects around the world are developed with EU funds. They go from huge infrastructures projects to small social and rural development projects.

According to the EU, the improvement of people’s living conditions is the main concern of its co-operation activities.

The launching of Europe Aid Co-operation Office is viewed by the EU’s executive body, the Commission, as an important phase in implementing the radical reform of the management of donor nations’ external assistance.

The decision on carrying out the reform was taken by the Commission last May, in order to speed up delivery and improve quality of programmes and projects.

“The creation of Europe Aid Co-operation Office is another milestone in our efforts to reform the Commission and to run our external aid programmes much more efficiently,” says External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, former British Governor in Hong Kong.

“I’m delighted that the decisions of budgetary authorities and the dedication of our staff made this development possible within the timeframe we set ourselves,” he adds.

“Improving the capacity to deliver in our development co- operation globally is crucial. This reform is an important contribution to making the Union’s development policy serve the needs of the poor throughout the world,” adds Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Poul Nielson.

“It puts in place a system which improves the ability of our administration to work in a more coherent manner,” says Nielson, who has served as development co-operation minister in Denmark.

Building on the existing Common Service for External Relations (SCR), Europe Aid Co-operation Office will be responsible for the management of the project cycle.

In practice this implies the managing of external assistance projects, under a single administrative structure, from identification of projects to monitoring of their implementation and to evaluation.

The new approach will apply to most of the EU external aid programmes, such as TACIS and MEDA, and the European Development Fund, intended for the ACP – Africa, Caribbean and Pacific – group of countries.

TACIS stands for EU’s technical assistance for former central and eastern European states, which were in the sphere of influence of the now defunct Soviet Union.

The MEDA programme is the principal financial instrument of the European Union for the implementation of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.

For the period 1995-1999 it accounted for over 3.4 billion Euros of the 4.685 billion of budgetary resources allocated for financial co-operation between the EU and its Mediterranean partners.

In the year 2000 available MEDA funds amount to 945 million Euros. These grants from the Community budget are accompanied by substantial lending from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The Europe Aid Co-operation Office will not only be a number- friendly institution but also a people-friendly institution, assures the EU Commission.

The projects that it will manage will take into account the global conditions for development in the region as well as the priorities set up by the Commission in this field.

The Office will operate under a management board chaired by EU external relations commissioner Patten. Development and humanitarian aid commissioner Poul Nielson will be the chief executive officer.

The board’s members are: EU Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen, Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes Mira.

The new office will be composed of six “operational” directorates – five geographic ones and one thematic – and two “supporting service” directorates.

The operational directorates will focus on: Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, including Mongolia; the Mediterranean and Near and Middle East; and the African, Caribbean and Pacific States, including South Africa and Cuba.

Two other directorates will be in-charge of Asia and Latin America. The sixth directorate will supervise Innovation and Thematic Operations – including human rights, NGO co-financing and the environment.