EU International Aid: 12 steps to 2015
EU international Aid is a major link in the chain of worldwide poverty and aid programs.
Today the EU even is the first donor worldwide, providing more than half of development aid and a staggering € 49 billion in 2009.
The twelve point plan presented today aims to support the international community in delivering the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The action plan is a call to prepare an agreed and strong EU position ahead of the MDG Summit in September and define a set of actions to be implemented at national, regional and international scales.
'If I compare this (sum) with national budgets, this is not really big money. It's really the political will that is necessary to achieve this target,' the EU's commissioner for development aid, Andris Piebalgs, told journalists in Brussels.
The 12 points for EU international Aid
- Make verifiable annual action plans for reaching individual targets
- Improve aid efficiency at the EU scale (saving estimates around 3 to 6 billion a year)
- Do more and better for the poorest
- Target the key sectors for gender, education, health and food security
- Work in partnerships
- Act in coherence with other EU policies for Development from Trade to migration to food and climate change
- Help national fundings to work better
- Strengthen regional integration and trade for growth and jobs
- Support innovative financing with high revenue potential that can benefit the poorest
- Use "fast-start" funding for climate change as a test for aid effectiveness and coherence
- Make development and security work better together
- Support stronger weight of developing countries in the World Bank, IMF and the UN reform for more effective agencies
12 steps to 2015: a sign to act
The twelve point plan is not only an important signal to the world outside Europe, it is also a message to all EU member states to work together more closely and keep their commitments.
It is a major message to all governments: Solidarity and Development Goals are of key importance for the future of the planet, beyond the moral values Europe holds dear.
Lady Ashton gets a break (almost)
Some weeks ago, we posted a message with the title "Can Lady Aston get a break?" . It seems the Gods in the European Pantheon responded to the call and the lady gets her break. As Reuters announces today, Ashton would control three key aid areas, as the EU aims to boost its influence in world.
The Guardian claims the exclusive on a 13-page document, that puts Ashton in charge of regional and country strategy in development policy, loosening the European commission's grip in this key area. As the EU's new foreign policy chief, she has secured key powers over the world's biggest development budget, according to a blueprint for Europe's first common diplomatic service. Aston is to unveil her blueprint tomorrow for the ambitious diplomatic service which has been the object of a ferocious turf war in Brussels and EU capitals for weeks. That's a good gain for Cathy," said a Brussels diplomat in The Guardian. "She will be able to set the direction of how EU money is spent."
The commission endorsed Ashton's proposals today, meaning that Andris Piebalgs, the development commissioner,
has dropped his resistance to surrendering some of his powers over policy decisions.
Despite the boost for Ashton, the outlines of the new diplomatic structure confirm it will be heavily
dominated by the European commission, to the chagrin of Britain and other big EU governments.
Ashton's blueprint calls for a diplomatic corps that will be managed by a powerful secretary general and two deputies.
This model has been criticized by senior parliamentarians as being too closely modeled on the French diplomatic service.
The separate humanitarian aid budget, and assistance for the EU's eastern neighbours, would remain
in the hands of Piebalgs and enlargement chief Stefan Fuele, her colleagues at the executive European Commission.
Lady Ashton has been hoping to secure final approval for her plan by the deadline of end of April, but diplomats say it will be hard to meet the target because she could face resistance from some of the 27 member states and in the European Parliament. So the lady gets a break (almost, but not yet completely). Maybe learning French can be a good move, as France's EU Affairs Minister, Pierre Lellouche invited her to do, as the BBC says. French is traditionally the language of diplomacy and of EU business, so it will improve the British first Lady of foreign affairs' chances in making friends and gaining respect in the diplomatic corps.
Ashton gets support and criticism (again)
Is Europe looking for an EU wonder Woman to run its international affairs? In any case, Lady Ashton is under a lot of pressure. She is under fire (again) for the delay in the creation of the new EU diplomatic corps and for the presence and management of European foreign affairs in the international arena.
The deadline for creating her new diplomatic service was next month, but it will probably be summer before it is ready, the Telegraph announces, with as a key obstacle the appointment of heads of delegations and staff to the EU's 136 overseas missions. A meeting last Thursday with the Commission president Barroso failed to resolve outstanding issues surrounding the corps. To make things worse, several sources continue to criticize Ashton on some of her first decisions, her absence in Haiti and at some key EU rendezvous.
To be fair, even wonder woman, with a magic golden whip and the ability to fly at the speed of light could not be present in all the hot spots of the world. And if that Wonder Woman would have to set up a major new institutional organization at the same time in a complex and not always cooperative environment, she would need the support of a gang of superheroes.
Maybe this is what in some form is happening now. It is a good thing that the lady in distress will now receive aid from three Commissioner deputies, also called "Cluster Commissioners", as Euractiv indicates on its website today.
Štefan Füle, the Czech commissioner for enlargement, Andris Piebalgs, his Latvian colleague responsible for development, and Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian commissioner for humanitarian aid, will assist Ashton, a Commission official said. National ministers from the 27-member states can also come to the rescue, on the basis of a preagreed mandate, to carry the EU's message, Euractiv says.
No doubt this is a logical and positive step. With better distribution of the workload and collaboration between the EU members, things should look up for the new foreign office to be.