Kehys Reminds EU Defence Ministers on Policy Coherence

21.9.2006 Helsinki

Dear Minister,

We are approaching you prior to the informal meeting for European Defence Ministers to be held on 2-3.10.2006 in Kittilä, Finland.

The European NGOs working in development cooperation feel that there is a clear need for stronger integration of the development policy objectives into the external and internal policies of the EU so that these policies support and do not undermine poverty eradication and sustainable development.

Please find attached an EU Presidency Manifesto published by the Finnish NGDO Platform to the EU, KEHYS. The publication features the European NGO’s main challenge to the Finnish Government and the European Union for increased policy coherence in order to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. The Manifesto is published as a part of the EU presidency campaign “Call for Coherence” coordinated by the Finnish NGDO Platform.

Under the theme of security and development we want you to take our following demands into account:

►The EU must coherently promote the legally binding treaty initiative controlling the arms trade, ”Arms Trade Treaty”. Compliance with the EU code of conduct for arms exportation has to be strengthened in all Member States and different policy fields must be coordinated more effectively.

► In order for development policy to effectively be taken into account in European security and defence policies, comprehensive actions need to be taken, especially in improving the cooperation between the EU institutions.

►The EU must develop mechanisms, such as an Early Warning System, in order to connect conflict prevention with crisis management more effectively.

►The EU has to increase cooperation with NGOs and exploit their know-how, in order to improve its actions in conflict prevention and civilian crisis management.

►The EU must ensure that the coherence of development and security policy is applied in the implementation phase of the strategy against terrorism, which is in preparation. Terrorism can only be prevented by root causes, such as poverty and inequality. The mere increasing of surveillance is not adequate.

The decisions on policy coherence are very important for EU’s credibility and efficiency. The NGOs are pleased with the fact that EU’s commitment to policy coherence has recently grown stronger. The NGOs hope that as a next step the objectives will be transformed into reality.

The goal of the joint NGO campaign during the Finnish EU presidency is to provoke discussion and create tools for the follow-up and evaluation of policy coherence. The role and the expertise of the civil society should also be recognised.

In our campaign, the focus will be on the following five themes and their connection to development policy. The themes are: HIV/Aids, trade, migration, environment and security policy.

Policy coherence for development will also be discussed during the international Call for Coherence conference, organized by Kehys, on 2-3.10 in Helsinki, i.e. at the same time as the European Defence Ministers meet in Kittilä. The aim is to offer a forum for discussion for specialists on development policy from EU Member States, EU-institutions, research institutes and the civil society. The conference is organized in co-operation with the Development Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, the Development Policy Committee and the Commission of the European Union. In addition to this, the conference is the main event for 2006 of CONCORD, the European umbrella organization of Kehys, and it will bring a large amount of European NGO functionaries to Helsinki.

Best regards,

Rilli Lappalainen Secretary General The Finnish NGDO Platform to the EU KEHYS ry