Press release
Parliament's priorities for the 10th European Development Fund
Development and cooperation - 23-04-2008 - 12:14
Plenary sessions
Plenary sessions
MEPs adopted a report urging that the European Development Fund be incorporated into the EU budget "in order to increase the consistency, transparency and effectiveness of development cooperation and guarantee democratic scrutiny". MEPs want to see democratic scrutiny by the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly of national strategy papers - the main instruments for implementing the EDF - as this would be a step towards conferring institutional power over development policy on the JPA and the EP.
Believing that a posteriori examination of the EDF budget discharge by the European Parliament is not an adequate means of democratic scrutiny, the European Parliament proposes that the Council confer on Parliament, pending the EDF's incorporation into the EU budget, an institutional role relating to the entire process of monitoring and assessing the Fund's programming.
The report was adopted with 637 votes in favour 23 against and 14 abstentions.
Call to focus on health and basic education
As to the EDF's policy priorities, the House maintains that the undertaking given in the context of the development cooperation instrument (DCI) to devote 20% of funds to health and basic education by 2009 should apply to all European development policy spending, including the EDF.
MEPs deplore the Council’s decision of 11 April 2006 that the African Peace Facility should be financed by the EDF, since this takes funds away from development in order to use them for foreign policy purposes. They believe the peace facility should be regarded as a Common Foreign and Security Policy instrument and not a development tool.
The report criticises the fact that the gender dimension has not been included in the 10th EDF as a specific area of action.
The European Parliament is also against any attempt to tie to the allocation of integrated regional programme funds to participation in an Economic Partnership Agreement.
The EDF is the EU's main instrument for development cooperation with the ACP countries and the Community's overseas territories. The 10th fund, covering the period 2008-2103, has a budget of €22 682 million.
REF.: 20080422IPR27270