European Commission

The Commission’s job is to represent and uphold the interests of the EU as a whole. It manages and implements EU policies and enforces European law. The Commission draws up proposals for new European legislation, which it presents to Parliament and the Council. It also implements the legislation adopted by Parliament and the Council, budget and programmes. In addition, the Commission represents the European Union on the international stage by negotiating, for example trade and partnership agreements between the EU and other countries. Only the Commission has the right of initiative in matters of the first pillar, concerning the Community. Development cooperation issues belong mostly to this first pillar.

The managing of development cooperation implemented by the European Community or the Commission lies on the shoulders of two separate directorate generals. DG Development is in charge of the political planning and compiling programmes concerning the ACP countries. By ACP-countries, it is referred to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries that are in practice former colonies of some member states. The ACP countries are within the Cotonou agreement. DG External Relations is similarly in charge of the political planning and programmes concerning other countries. It is responsible for Tacis, ALA and MEDA programmes (cooperation with the former USSR countries, countries of the Mediterranean and countries of the Asia and Latin America.

The third actor is EuropeAid Co-operation Office, which is in charge of implementing the development cooperation and managing the realisation of development cooperation programmes. The Humanitarian Aid Department, ECHO, is responsible for humanitarian aid, which includes helping the victims of natural disasters or taking care of the wounded in the conflict area and the refugees.

The Delegations are Commission embassies in countries outside the Union. Officially, the delegations are answerable for the DG External Relations but in practice they work in cooperation with EuropeAid Co-operation Office.

The distribution of work of the Commission means in practice that the planning, implementation and evaluation of he development policy and cooperation is complicatedly divided with different units. One of past years’ reforms is decentralising the decision-making from Brussels to delegations in order to make the decision-making more effective and closer to the field. DG Development Treating EU affairs in Finland