October 19, 2011
Posted: 17:27 PM UTC
by Bruce Byiers on October 19, 2011
Does the current financial crisis simply imply fiscal challenges across-the-board, or does it also present some development opportunities? ECDPM has prepared a Discussion Paper to examine the range of issues relating to taxation and development to feed into this area of the development agenda. The issue of domestic resource mobilisation has become the focus of increasing attention in developed and developing economies alike with the onset of the financial crisis. Only last week, the European Commission released its Communications on Development Policy and Budget Support both of which prominently featured the issue of the need ...
October 14, 2011
Posted: 15:09 PM UTC
by Niels Keijzer on October 14, 2011
++ SERIES: ECDPM ANALYSIS OF NEW EU DEVELOPMENT POLICY REFORM PROPOSALS ++ One year ago, the European Commission published a Green Paper titled ‘EU development policy in support of inclusive growth and sustainable development – Increasing the impact of EU development policy’. This Green Paper, the first promise of a major policy reorientation under the political leadership of Development Commissioner Piebalgs, provided a basis for a public consultation in which concerned stakeholders could share their own views on the future directions of EU development cooperation. ECDPM was one of over 230 organisations who responded to ...
September 30, 2011
Posted: 16:26 PM UTC
by Isabelle Ramdoo on September 30, 2011
The European Commission (EC) finally announced today that countries that have concluded an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) but not taken the necessary steps to ratify and implement it would no longer benefit from the EPA market access to Europe as from 1st January 2014. The EC Market Access Regulation (MAR) 1528 of 1st January 2008 provides duty free quota free market access for African Caribbean and Pacific countries that have concluded an EPA. The Regulation requires countries to sign, ratify and implement the Agreement within a “reasonable period of time”. At it currently stands, the ...
September 30, 2011
Posted: 15:35 PM UTC
by Faten Aggad on September 30, 2011
The European Union has been criticised for its slow response to the events that have unfolded in Tunisia and in Egypt in the first half of 2011. But it is catching up with the new SPRING programme - Support for Partnership, Reform and Inclusive Growth - which it adopted this week. The four pillars of the new package are: - A €350 million flagship initiative to support the political transition (the SPRING programme); - A Special Measure designed to support poorer areas in Tunisia to the value of €20 million; - Additional resources for higher ...
September 30, 2011
Posted: 15:10 PM UTC
by Bruce Byiers on September 30, 2011
The European Commission has presented a proposal for a EU-wide financial transaction tax (FTT) to come into effect in 2014. Ostensibly to increase the tax contribution of financial services, to limit market volatility, and to avoid distortions on the internal market, the tax also aims at substantially raising EU revenues. Indeed, the EC’s proposal estimates that it will raise € 57 billion per year, more than the €53.8 billion spent on aid by the EU and its member states in 2010. So has the Tobin Tax’s time finally come? As one commentator puts it, “Tobin ...
September 23, 2011
Posted: 21:16 PM UTC
by Andrew Sherriff on September 23, 2011
In the field of foreign policy and external action, the promise of the European Union’s (EU) Lisbon Treaty was for a more integrated and coherent EU, with the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European External Action Service (EEAS) at the helm. The EEAS has just published the EU Strategy for Security and Development in the Sahel region, and as it is one of the first integrated geographic strategies put forward under the new institutional setup, it might be read as an indicator for the future of EU ...
September 23, 2011
Posted: 17:23 PM UTC
by Bruce Byiers on September 23, 2011
Although the question of how developing countries can improve domestic resource mobilisation (DRM) has never been off the agenda, the issue is increasingly the subject of renewed interest. This is the case both in developing countries, eager to increase their policy space and free themselves from the strings attached to donor aid, and in developed countries, forced to increasingly look for the best “value for money” at a time of spending cuts at home. There are a range of initiatives and conferences which place the issue of DRM at the centre of their reflections - ...
July 29, 2011
Posted: 12:15 PM UTC
by Fernanda Faria on July 29, 2011
A couple of decades into a prolific debate in both academic and policy circles, including within the EU over the last few years, the concept and terminology of fragile states remains vague and controversial. However, the debate has undoubtedly had its merits. It has raised awareness to the implications of state fragility and to the complexities of state building. It has played an important role too in focusing the attention of the international community on some of the most neglected countries and populations around the world. The fragile states debate has also brought attention to ...
July 29, 2011
Posted: 12:14 PM UTC
by Melissa Julian on July 29, 2011
EU Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, discussed the development cooperation aspects of the European Commission’s (EC) Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2014-2020 with members of the European Parliament’s Development Committee on 12 July. These strongly correspond to the proposals on the future of EU development policy the EC is currently considering, and aims to table in September. ECDPM’s Jeske van Seters provided an outline of the MFF’s development provisions in a previous Talking Points blog post, so we won’t here re-summarise the Commissioner’s presentation on this, but instead highlight additional points he made in the debate with ...
July 29, 2011
Posted: 12:10 PM UTC
by Melissa Julian on July 29, 2011
At its meeting on 13 July, the European Parliament’s Development Committee held an exchange of views with EC and civil society representatives to feed into the emerging EU position for the international High Level forum on Aid Effectiveness being held in Busan in November. The committee has prepared a draft report for adoption by the Parliament in the autumn calling, inter alia, for continued support for the aid effectiveness agenda, EU leadership and a focus on democratic ownership and accountability. EC proposals will be published in the first half of September. EU Development Ministers are ...
