EU Council Conclusions - Effectiveness of EU External Action

CONCLUSIONS OF THE COUNCIL AND OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE MEMBER STATES MEETING WITHIN THE COUNCIL ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EU EXTERNAL ACTION, GENERAL AFFAIRS AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS Council meeting, Brussels

"The Council and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council held their sixth debate on improving the effectiveness of EU external action based on a discussion paper from the Presidency.

Since it was first mooted in Evian in September 2000, the overarching aim of the Orientation Debate has been to review the coherence of the Union's external policies and assistance, to consider how the effectiveness of EU external action might be increased and to propose guidelines for the forthcoming year. In view of events during 2005, and in particular the EU commitment to substantially increase official development assistance volumes between now and 2015, this year's debate is exclusively focused on how to deliver more effective and high quality European aid.

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THE COUNCIL AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEMBER STATES MEETING WITHIN THE COUNCIL,

Recall the EU Action Plan on coordination, harmonisation and alignment adopted at the November 2004 GAERC;

Recall the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness of the March 2005 DAC High level Forum and the EU statement delivered in this context, including the particular commitments adopted by the Union;

Recall the Council Conclusions of May GAERC 2005 on new EU aid volume targets;

Recall the outcome of the Millennium Review Summit including renewed commitments to the MDGs and to more effective delivery of aid;

Recall Council Conclusions of the January 2004 Orientation Debate on the need to use standard, objective and transparent resource allocation criteria for all EC external assistance, based on needs and performance and taking into account difficulties faced by countries in conflict or crisis, and Council Conclusions of the November 2004 Orientation Debate on the need for more Community resources targeting the poorest, with a specific focus on Africa;

Refer to the revision of the 2000 EC Development Policy Statement;

Stress the EU's position as the world's largest provider of official development assistance and the position of the Community as the world's third largest provider of official development assistance.

AND ADOPT THE FOLLOWING CONCLUSIONS:

1. The Council recognises that transaction costs on partner countries of receiving aid are too high, and will increase as new aid comes on stream, unless donors focus on the quality of the aid and the nature of partnerships.

2. The Council affirms that the EU, in its capacity as a global leader in providing development aid with the ambition to contribute positively to eliminating poverty and meeting the MDGs, must be fully equipped to deliver rapidly increasing aid volumes in ways that support best practice and strengthens partner government processes and systems.

3. In this context, the Council reaffirms its intention to take concrete action on the commitments made in the GAERC in November 2004, at the DAC High Level Forum on Aid effectiveness in Paris in March 2005 and again at the Millennium Review Summit in September 2005 by increasing partner country ownership of the development process and aligning support with partners' development strategies, institutions and procedures; by promoting more harmonised, transparent and collective EU actions; by focusing on results and mutual accountability; and by promoting more decentralised aid delivery.

Promoting more effective delivery of European aid

4. The Council recognises the need to monitor progress against recent commitments to improve the effectiveness of European aid. Therefore, the Council calls upon the Commission and Member States to work for a system for monitoring progress against the Paris Declaration indicators by the DAC , to be in place in early 2006. The Council should also monitor the additional EU commitments made at the November 2004 GAERC and in Paris, and should review progress in the context of the annual Monterrey review exercise starting in April 2006 and in the yearly Annual Report on Community external action;

5. The Council supports the need for Member States and the Commission to increase their participation in joint multi-annual programming based on partner countries' development strategies and preferably led by the partner country, as a key element to promote more effective aid. This should progressively apply to all European official development assistance as soon as national contexts permit. Joint multi-annual programming will pave the way for coordination of policies, harmonisation of procedures and opportunities and decisions relating to complementarity. In this process the EU should respect partner countries' ownership and leadership for multi-annual programming with donor-wide engagement. Alignment with the partner countries' multi-annual programming cycles (Poverty Reduction Strategies and budget processes) will increase opportunities to synchronise the Member States' and the Commission's multi-annual programming processes. In that regard, it is recommended that Member States and the Commission ensure flexibility in their own procedures. The Council invites the Commission to present a proposal for an updated Common Framework for Country Strategy Papers by February 2006, and for Council to discuss this in spring 2006. The Council looks forward to the next generation of Community country strategies, which will progressively be based on the revised Common Framework for Country Strategy Papers;

6. The Council wishes to promote mutually supporting actions between EU donors as well as other donors at field level to avoid duplication, ensure more focused aid, reduce transaction costs and maximise impact. Arrangements of delegated cooperation and lead donors may be explored in this context. The establishment of EU roadmaps in support of national harmonisation plans will, where feasible and appropriate, support such actions;

7. The Council notes the need for better quality, outcome and impact-based indicators linked to meeting the MDGs. In this context, the Council welcomes the Commission's assessment framework based on 10 indicators related to the MDGs, and encourages the use of this framework in the programming of forthcoming Community country strategies.

Promoting more effective allocation of resources

8. Since the Community is the world's third largest provider of official development assistance, the Council invites the Commission to do its utmost to help partners meet the MDGs, including by increasing its support to low income countries, as set out in the Development Policy Statement 2005¹;

9. The Council reconfirms the importance of using objective and transparent resource allocation criteria based on needs and performance within global geographic and thematic allocations of Community external assistance. The particular difficulties faced by countries in crisis or in conflict will be borne in mind, alongside the specificity of the different programmes. The Council invites the Commission to share with Member States their criteria for allocating resources to countries as soon as possible in 2006 and stresses the importance of applying these criteria from the start of the next Financial Perspective;

10. The Council recognises partner countries' need for more long-term, predictable development funding; and therefore encourages the Commission to bring forward detailed proposals for a new long-term, flexible and harmonised budget support mechanism, targeted on the best-performing poor countries, by April 2006;

11. The Council recognises the need to improve predictability of aid and calls upon both Member States and the Commission to make further efforts to this effect. The Council invites Member States and the Commission to publish, where possible, indicative projections of aid by type (according to DAC criteria) and country over the next three years, and possibly also over a longer term.

Promoting more effective management of Community aid

12. The Council welcomes the reforms made in the field of Community external action since 2000, and considers that the steps taken have had a positive impact on the effectiveness of Community aid. Likewise, the Council welcomes the assessment of the review exercise of all Community strategies and agrees that the programming framework, and mechanisms set up to develop strategies, have improved the focus and coherence of Community aid. The Council invites the Commission to inform Council of the further impact of its reform efforts on an annual basis;

13. The Council stresses the importance of a country-based approach to development where decisions are taken close to the beneficiaries and in partnership with stakeholders. The Council therefore welcomes the devolution of aid management to Commission delegations and considers this a crucial step in making Community aid more effective and responsive. The Council invites the Commission to further strengthen its delegations in terms of staffing and skills mix without jeopardising the skills base at headquarters, and also to explore ways to further increase their financial authority, thereby reinforcing their capacity to interact with partner governments and donors;

14. The Council notes that Community aid is still hampered by complex rules and procedures. Therefore, the Council invites the Commission to further rationalise and streamline its systems and rules, including its Financial Regulations, with a view to facilitating its role in co-funding, joint donor actions and national harmonisation efforts, to further improving the quality of its actions, and to helping it to deliver aid in line with best practice, including through budget support, in the context of the next Financial Perspective;

15. The Council welcomes the steady improvement in financial performance since 2000, and invites the Commission to set targets to eliminate as far as possible its old RAL (Reste à Liquider) and inactive commitments, and to further increase the speed of delivery across all regions.

16. The Council notes the importance of concentrating Community aid in partner countries so as to maximise its impact and promote the most effective use of resources. The Council invites the Commission to adhere closely to this principle when programming the next generation of country strategy programmes.

17. The Council welcomes the Commission's commitment to further deepen its reform efforts with a focus on impact, quality and more devolution, building on the achievements of the 2000 reform programme, and aiming to equip the Commission with the right tools to deliver more effective and higher quality aid. The Council invites the Commission to keep it informed of progress in deepening its reform efforts.

Strengthening the EU's role in Middle-Income Countries

18. The Council acknowledges the need to provide the most effective mix of support to partners based on country-specific circumstances. The Council therefore invites the Commission and the European Investment Bank to develop proposals for a more coherent deployment of loans and Community external grant resources, including an increased role for lending where the economic and political conditions are appropriate; and suitable measures to encourage the emergence of projects for loan funding, and to present such ideas to Council in 2006;

19. The Council asks the Commission to articulate clearly its purposes and role in using official development assistance in middle-income countries, distinguishing between upper middle-income and lower middle-income countries, including: its particular advantages in different contexts; the range of its objectives, policies and approaches and their impact, including on poverty and inequality; the way in which it is implementing the Paris commitments on aid effectiveness; the criteria by which it allocates its resources and the proportion of its aid that is focused on reducing poverty and inequality."


¹ See document 14820/05 DEVGEN 229 RELEX 678 ACP 155

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