IPS News: DEVELOPMENT: EURO-PARLIAMENTARIANS SCRUTINISE EU AID (17 January 2007)
Brussels, 17/01/07, (IPS): The European Parliament is insisting that EU-financed development aid should be held under greater scrutiny than it has been until now.
With this in view, the Parliament’s development committee has begun analysing a series of country strategy papers on the expenditure of EU aid. The papers were drawn up by the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, which has said that it wishes to promote the idea that countries receiving EU aid have “ownership” of it.
Although the 2000 Cotonou agreement, underpinning relations between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bloc, places a legal obligation on the Commission to consult with non-governmental organisations, Dutch Socialist MEP Max van den Berg said the Commission has had “very little success” in complying with it.
“Unless countermeasures are taken, this will result in a serious lack of ownership of country strategy papers on the part of our partner countries,” van den Berg, vice-chairman of the development committee said.
Eurostep, a network of European development NGOs, last year published four case studies on the European Development Fund (EDF).
The studies found that in all four countries -- Zambia, Benin, Cameroon and Burundi -- there had been little or no consultation with NGOs when programmes for the fund were being devised in 2002. The fund allocated 13.5 billion euros to the ACP for 2003-07
“If you want any real reflection of the idea that developing countries have ownership of EU-funded programmes, then there clearly needs to be a process of consultation with those who are involved in development,” said Simon Stocker, director of Eurostep.
“Nobody wants to suggest that civil society should take over the roles of governments or parliaments but clearly they have a valuable role to play,” he told IPS.
However, the European Commissioner for Development Louis Michel says that “progress has been made” in ensuring that NGOs are consulted.
“While there will always be room for improvement in promoting participatory approaches, the Commission is globally satisfied that non-state actors are gradually becoming involved in and consulted on development strategies,” says Michel.
While most of the focus on consultation issues has been on the ACP bloc, the European Parliament is also seeking greater scrutiny of EU aid to Asia and Latin America.
Both NGOs and the development committee have been pressing for aid for countries officially recognised as developing to have the eradication of poverty as their primary goal and that this should not be subsumed by other policy objectives relating to trade or security.
Mikaela Gavas, a specialist on EU aid with the British Overseas NGOs for Development (BOND) network, expressed concern that strategy papers for several countries have sought to have anti-terrorism and other security measures financed under development aid provisions.
The countries covered include India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Colombia, and the entire Central America and Central Asia regions.
“Clearly, the activities concerned do not fit with the eligibility for official development assistance,” said Gavas, referring to criteria for aid drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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This is the first in a series of articles on the European Commission's country strategy papers on EU development aid.
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