April 1, 2011
Posted: 11:11 AM UTC
by ECDPM Editorial Team on April 1, 2011
ACP and European Parliamentarians discussed this issue at a meeting of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee meeting in Brussels on 16 March. Here, we provide Informal Notes from ECDPM which detail the comments made by MEPs and representatives of the European External Action Service and the European Commission’s DG DEVCO on the current and post-2020 Cotonou Agreement partnership. The committee will be drafting a report on this issue for formal adoption by the full JPA later this year.
March 28, 2011
Posted: 16:57 PM UTC
by ecdpm on March 28, 2011
The newest issue of ECDPM’s Europafrica bulletin introduces the nine new senior appointees in charge of sub-Saharan Africa, six of whom worked in almost identical positions for the EC’s DG Development before they joined the European External Action Service. As part of EEAS’ Africa entity, whose final designation has not yet been decided, they will be responsible for strategic planning of EU relations with Africa, programming and the financial allocation. This new institutional setup will have implications for the EU policy towards Africa, amongst many pressing questions are how the EEAS will approach EPAs and ...
March 28, 2011
Posted: 16:53 PM UTC
by ecdpm on March 28, 2011
The European Commission is expected to launch a formal legislative proposal for the post-2013 EU Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) by July 2011. In parallel to that the European Parliament’s Special Committee on the policy Challenges and Budgetary Resources for a Sustainable European Union (SURE) will propose a resolution in March 2011. Negotiations will then start between the EU Member States, the Council and the European Parliament. The process should end by the end of 2012 for the MFF, to enable one year (2013) to put in place the necessary legislation, and for implementation to start ...
March 21, 2011
Posted: 09:51 AM UTC
by ECDPM Editorial Team on March 21, 2011
With respect to development policy, the EU’s new External Action Service is already showing cracks in its structure and it lacks the ambition to mediate competing EU policy objectives, warns ECDPM director Paul Engel. In the newest edition of Europe’s World he points out that in order to make the EEAS work for development, it should take a lead role in policymaking, promote policy coherence and ensure that development principles inform aid allocation and programming. If EEAS improves donor coordination, up to 10% of the total EU aid budget could be saved per year. But ...
February 28, 2011
Posted: 03:55 AM UTC
by ECDPM Editorial Team on February 28, 2011
The European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO) applauds the creation of the European External Action Service’s Directorate for Conflict Prevention and Security Policy and within it a Peacebuilding, Conflict Prevention and Mediation Unit, but calls for the allocation of more staff to the unit to enable it to fulfil this role. EPLO also calls for the unit to be more integrated with the other EU bodies which play a role in conflict and security policy.
February 11, 2011
Posted: 11:09 AM UTC
by ECDPM Editorial Team on February 11, 2011
Below are ECDPM’s informal verbatim notes of this important debate. The speeches are not available anywhere else. 1 February 2011 European Parliament Special committee on the policy challenges and budgetary resources for a sustainable European Union after 2013. David O’Sullivan, EAS Chief Operating Officer Piebalgs will give EC view on heading 4 and Financial Perspectives later today to committee EAS providing inputs to that process Before summer – EC proposals will be put forward This programming issue is a big one we’re thinking about. Piebalgs will say more How do we face challenges of 21st ...
February 7, 2011
Posted: 16:57 PM UTC
by ECDPM Editorial Team on February 7, 2011
The Overseas Development Institute published its contribution to the EC’s consultation on budget support to third countries calling on the EU to improve its understanding of the political economy of budget support operations and to evaluate the effectiveness of the MDG contracts before expanding their application. In their blog post “The role of the private sector in development”, ODI welcomes UK DFID’s launch of its private sector department and outlines ODI’s own thinking on how donors, governments and the corporate sector itself can further enhance the private sector’s contribution to development. In the blog post ...
January 31, 2011
Posted: 08:49 AM UTC
by ECDPM Editorial Team on January 31, 2011
The EU’s ability to act on human rights situations deteriorated in 2010 because responsibilities in the post-Lisbon Treaty structures were confused David Nichols of the Human Rights and Democracy Network told members of the European Parliament’s Human Rights Sub-Committee meeting on 10 January. Véronique Arnault, Director for Human Rights and Democracy at the European External Action Service (EAS) agreed that the human rights language in EU declarations had suffered due to “teething problems”, but noted that stronger statements are now being made linking human rights situations and reinforcement of bilateral relations. Arnault informed MEPs on ...
January 28, 2011
Posted: 12:18 PM UTC
by ECDPM Editorial Team on January 28, 2011
The European Parliament’s Human Rights Sub-Committee held an exchange of views on 10 January on the functioning the European External Action Service (EAS) with Véronique Arnault, Director for Human Rights and Democracy at the EAS and David Nichols of the Human Rights and Democracy Network (HRDN). Nichols argued that the EU’s ability to act on human rights situations deteriorated in 2010 because individual responsibilities in the post-Lisbon Treaty structures were confused and he hoped the new institutional set up would rectify this. EU declarations were either not made or the ones that were used more ...
December 20, 2010
Posted: 11:26 AM UTC
by ECDPM Editorial Team on December 20, 2010
Relations between the European Union and its partners in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) are in a parlous state. Past readers of ECDPM’s annual Challenges Paper know that we regularly refer to ACP-EU relations as being at a critical juncture, and this is certainly true at the start of 2011. The EU’s credibility in much of the ACP is at an all-time low, and in the EU many seem to have lost faith in the future of the partnership with the ACP. Moreover, there is a collective failure to recognise that in the ...
