Reform of EU Development Policy

Since the year 2004 EU Development Cooperation has seen major reform efforts. The Commission and Member States are engaged in rephrasing the political objectives and reorganising the funding, including the way in which money will be spent via the respective financial instruments.

While the necessity for change was widely acknowledged to make EU development co-operation more flexible, there are concerns about the direction some of the reforms are headed, against a global agenda increasingly dominated by security and economic growth as priorities rather than poverty eradication and sustainable development. Similarly, the reform provides opportunities and threats to the integration of environmental aspects into the development agenda.

CAN-Europe is cooperating with development groups such as Concord and Eurostep as well as like-minded environmental organisations (WWF, Fern, IUCN, CI, Birdlife) to preserve and enhance the sustainable development focus of EU development cooperation on all levels of the reform. The NGO documents and policy proposals below provide an overview of the processes currently underway and the positions NGOs have taken so far.
For more details, please contact our policy officer, Matthias Duwe.

NGO documents

February 2005
NGO letter to Members of the European Parliament on the Development Committee regarding the report on financial instruments

December 2004
Joint NGO briefing to Members of the European Parliament on the financial instruments

November 2004
Joint NGO letter to EU Development Ministers regarding the financial instruments for the Financial Perspectives 2007-13

October 2004
Eurostep Briefing on the proposed Development Co-operation and Economic Co-operation Instrument

EU policy documents and links

Policy Statement:
EU issues paper on the Policy Statement
EU online consultation on the Policy Statement - ended 18 March 2005

Proposed new financial instruments:
COM(2004)627 - Pre-Accession Instrument (PAI)
COM(2004)628 - European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI)
COM(2004)629 - Development Co-operation and Economic Co-operation Instrument (DCECI)
COM(2004)630 - Instrument for Stability
PRELEX: official progress on the DCEC