Report on EU External Assistance

Foreword

Financial assistance to third countries is one of the central components of the European Union's external action, alongside trade policy and political dialogue. It is thus an important tool for promoting the fundamental values of the European Union and for meeting the global challenges of the 21 st century.

The European Union is one of the major actors in international co-operation and development assistance. In total, the European Community and the Member States provides some 55 per cent of total international Official Development Assistance (ODA) and more than two thirds of grant aid. Over the past fifteen years Community external assistance, originally concentrated on ACP countries, has acquired a global reach and the Community is today financing projects in more than 140 countries.

Like other international donors the Community is faced with the challenge of increasing the quality and impact of its financial assistance throughout the world. For the Commission, this challenge is particularly great because the overall volume of its assistance (commitments) has increased rapidly from € 3,3 billion in 1990 to € 9,3 billion in 2000, which means some 10% of the entire world ODA.

This is why, in May 2000 the Commission launched a fundamental reform of its external assistance. This included concentrating the development assistance on a limited number of priority areas with the overriding objective of poverty reduction in developing countries worldwide and better integration of the partner countries into the global economy. At the same time the Commission embarked on an ambitious programme of measures to make significant improvements in the quality and timely delivery of projects while ensuring robust financial management. This reform is an important element of the present wider administrative reform of the Commission.

The full implementation of this ambitious programme will take time and 2000 was a year of initiation and transition. Nevertheless, the preliminary results in terms of concentration on priority areas, streamlining and harmonizing approaches and procedures were already apparent in 2000. Also 2000 saw the first sign of quicker implementation of programmes funded by the EC budget by comparison with the previous four years.

This first Annual Report is in itself a reflection of the reform - very much work in progress. Future editions will provide a comprehensive picture of the EC's external assistance programmes and thus will respond to a range of formal reporting requirements and to the need of inform better the European public.

We have started the most comprehensive reform ever and are looking forward to future reports that will provide clear information on progress with the fundamental improvements in the management of external assistance that we are determined to achieve.

The Board

Introduction

Managing external assistance of more than € 9 billion per annum and involved in more than 140 countries, the European Community is one of the main actors in the area of international co-operation. This document brings together for the first time all the actions taken in the framework of the different external aid programmes of the Commission in 2000, except pre-accession instruments, macro-financial aid, Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Rapid Reaction Facility.

A pilot exercise, developed by the EuropeAid Co-operation Office in close collaboration with the Development and External Relations Directorates General, this document brings together elements which were under the responsibility of different services of the Commission. Thus, it reflects the reform of external aid management decided by the