European Union: Development Cooperation

EU development cooperation belongs to the area of joint competence which means that individual member countries and the European Community (EC) have their own development cooperation. By the European Union (EU) development cooperation is in general referred to the ensemble of development cooperation of the member states and the European Community. The European Union is a confederation that does not have independent competence over member state governments. Whereas the European Community is an international organisation that has independent competence. The joint development cooperation of the EU countries belongs to the area of EC cooperation and the European Commission is in charge of its implementation.

EU development policy legislation is provided in the Treaty of Maastricht (1992). The development policy has been complemented in the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997. The main objective of development policy is decreasing of poverty and its principles can be divided into four aspects:

COMPLEMENTARITY: Development cooperation of the Commission and the member states has to complement each other. CO-ORDINATION: Development cooperation of the Commission and the member states has to be coordinated with each other. COHERENCE: All EU policies have to be coherent and concordant with development policy objectives. CONSISTENCY: Consistency of the actions of EU external relations.

EU development policy’s objectives and strategy are defined in the European Consensus on Development that was approved by the member states in December 2005. For the first time, the Consensus is shared by the Commission, Parliament and Council, which means that it creates the frames for as well as the European Community development cooperation. The European Consensus on Development replaces the last statement dating form the year 2000.

The text is not a part of the EU legislation. However, it is a high-level policy line, which declares the joint values and objectives of development policy. The Commission is bound by it to accomplish certain political goals. Action plans have to be formed to support the aims of the Consensus. The principal objective of the new statement is eradication of poverty and it also covers commitments to policy coherence. Its five main principles are ownership and partnership of the development countries, in-depth political dialogue, participation of civil society, gender equality and a continuous engagement towards preventing state fragility.

The Declaration is divided into two parts: the first part presents the common goals, principles, commitments and values of EU development policy, whereas the second part deals with the implementation of development policy and development cooperation and defines the Comission competence in the field of development cooperation.

The European Union has many levels of decision-making and influencing takes place in all of these levels. The Commission drafts proposals for Community development policy. The working groups of the Council prepare the approval of the proposals and in time the Council will approve the policy and the Commission will implement it. At this stage, the committees, which are composed of the representatives of the member states, assist the Commission.

KEHYS and other European NGOs follow carefully the discussion on development policy in the different stages of the decision-making process. KEHYS aims to influence opinions in Finland and through its European umbrella organisation, CONCORD, in the EU.