Does RIPs spell ‘Regional Integration Promise’ or ‘Rest In Peace’? The mood at the 2013 African Economic Conference was clear - progress on regional integration in Africa has been slow. The EU is an obvious candidate to support African regional organisations’ (ROs) to drive the regional integration agenda, given its historic experience and diplomatic presence in the ROs’ member states. Yet the EU did not have a strong showing at the conference. Political issues continue to hamper the effective use of EU funds to promote regional integration. Despite the insistence that “we are the regions”, ...
The “EU’s comprehensive approach to external conflict and crisis”, launched jointly last week by the European Commission and the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has been a long-awaited Communication for those following the development of the EU’s external action closely. It refers to conflict and crisis in it’s title but, in essence, goes beyond this as it aims to clarify the guiding principles for a joint EU external action across all areas, while emphasising dealing with conflict (prevention) and post-crisis recovery. The EU started discussing the need for this ...
This article was co-authored by Anna Knoll and Niels Keijzer (Deutsche Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). The upcoming UN High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development. Is it not the dream of all people to have the right to move and live where they want? , Owen Barder thinks so. However Paul Collier suggests, in a short article, that people who do move for a better life incur substantial psychological costs that may broadly offset their economic gains through higher wages. He argues that migrants may become wealthier but not always happier and that tensions may ...
The review of the European External Action Service (EEAS) is in full swing – on June 12th the European Parliament (EP) presented its inputs on the organisation and functioning of the service, which is just over 2 years old. The reply from EU High Representative Catherine Ashton gives some hints on the content of the report, which will eventually to be submitted to the Council, and is expected by summer 2013. ECDPM has also discussed the potential politics of the review process scope in their previous paper ‘Gearing up for the 2013 EEAS Review’. The ...
In this ECDPM video, Klaus Rudischhauser, Deputy Director-General for Policy and Thematic Coordination at the European Commission, talks about where and how EU development assistance should be targeted. He says money should be given to those countries most in need, and that other forms of development initiatives – such as domestic resource mobilisation – should be used in upper-middle income countries. Development assistance is “seed money to drive processes, to promote reform and to assist the country in implementing those reforms.” He says that the Commission will “produce a policy document - before the summer ...
This article was co-authored by Brecht Lein and Niels Keijzer (Deutsche Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). The European Union is committed to policy coherence for development (PCD), and has identified global food security as one of the five key priority areas where EU policies should seek to have a positive impact or at least ‘do no harm’. But EU actors and development stakeholders seem to have difficulty in moving forward on two obviously interlinked questions – without an adequate monitoring mechanism (the “how” question) it is hard to actually prove the development-impact of the CAP (the ...
The EU’s “comprehensive approach” in external action policy has provoked a range of responses - but the most widespread seems to be confusion. Ask 10 people from across the EU institutions to define the comprehensive approach and chances are you’ll get 10 different answers. While the basic premise is simple enough to grasp, it’s hard to find consensus, common language or any sense that the EU is actually acting comprehensively. Current developments in Mali have made the necessity for clarity even more pressing. This blog seeks to explore the key questions needed to frame the ...
Florian Kratke co-authored this article. European Heads of State will be taking more than one shirt to the 22-23 November budget summit, anticipating lengthy negotiations for reaching the political agreement on future EU funding needed by the end of the year. EU insiders are expecting a deal to include cuts of up to €200 billion. A key question is how much development cooperation expenditure will be lost in the process. The revised “negotiation box” for the EU’s 2014-2020 Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF), presented by the Cyprus EU Presidency at the end of October, will serve ...
The EU’s new development policy framework, the “Agenda for Change”, does not explicitly mention social and economic inequalities. Now, the European Commission clearly acknowledges that a variety of inequalities exist in both low- and middle-income countries and elaborates its policy response. In a recently adopted Communication, the EU affirms the value of social protection for overcoming socio-economic inequalities and for promoting inclusive growth: “people’s ability to participate in and benefit from wealth and job creation”. Social protection is defined as a set of “policies and actions that enhance the capacity of all people, but notably ...
Last week, the European Commission’s published a new policy proposal titled ‘the roots of democracy and sustainable development; Europe’s engagement with civil society in external relations’. aiming to carve out a new and more strategic engagement with civil society organizations (CSOs). This proposal, or ‘Communication’ goes a long way in recognizing and specifically emphasizing the inherent value of a strong civil society ‘as an asset in itself’, over and above its instrumental contributions in bringing about development outcomes. It refreshes the last policy proposal on this matter from 2002, and was informed through a detailed ‘structured ...
