The ratification of the Lisbon Treaty: the moment of truth for development cooperation in the context of EU foreign policy?
Now that the Czech President, Václav Klaus, has signed the Lisbon Treaty, thereby completing the full ratification of the Treaty, the EU Heads of State will soon be meeting again to decide on who should occupy the two most senior posts, that of the permanent President of the European Council and that of the High Representative of the Union in Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The latter will be responsible for setting up the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU diplomatic service intended to support him or her in implementing EU foreign policy.
While the EU heads of state had endorsed the outlines of the EEAS at their Summit meeting on 29 and 30 October, and agreed that enlargement, trade and development policy should remain the responsibility of the relevant commissioners and their DGs, there was still disagreement as to whether the programming of existing development policies should become part of the EEAS.
Although it was agreed that the new Commission would include a Commissioner for Development Cooperation, his portfolio has so far not been finalised. In fact the institutional debate revolves around the question: should development cooperation be seen as a tool to help the world's poorest or should it be seen as a tool at the service of broader (diplomatic) foreign policy goals? At present development policy is divided between different Commission departments and the EU's relations with ACP countries are limited to little more than development assistance. There is a clear disconnect, which could be solved by bringing the various geographical desks together within the EEAS, according to certain sources.
However, the concentration of foreign, security and development policy within the EEAS would increase the danger of development policy becoming a poor relation within the broad foreign policy arena, losing sight of the main objective of development cooperation: poverty eradication. With the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty the signatories also endorsed its article 208, which states that ‘Union development cooperation policy shall have as its primary objective the reduction and, in the long term, the eradication of poverty. The Union shall take account of the objectives of development cooperation in the policies that it implements which are likely to affect developing countries'.
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