Sumario: September 16, 2002 : The EU and Financing for Development
At the UN's Millennium Summit in September 2000, the international community, including the European Union, pledged to halve world poverty by 2015. To achieve this goal the World Bank estimates that a doubling of existing aid - an extra $50 billion annually - will be necessary. Such a sum must be found and skilfully deployed to secure the necessary means for more equitable global development, maintained the Danish Prime Minister and current EU President Anders Fogh Rasmussen in his
statement at the 57th United Nations General Assembly on September 12, 2002.
As European Commission President, Romano Prodi also made clear in his address at the Millennium Summit in September 2000, Finance for Development (FfD) is a priority for the EU: the EU is the largest provider of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in the world, accounting for half of overall world development assistance in 1999 (25 billion euros). The EU's recent decision to increase its development assistance by 8 billion euros, announced at the Monterrey Conference on FfD in March
2002, is another clear signal of European determination to remain the largest source of assistance for developing countries.
However, the EU recognises that there is still more to be done beyond simply securing an increase in ODA. At the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Doha in November 2001 the EU pledged to maximise the development benefits of trade and globalisation. In advance of Doha the EU launched its groundbreaking 'Everything But Arms' initiative (February 2001), which eliminated all duties and quotas on products - except arms - to the world's poorest countries subject to a phase-in for a few producers. This
agreement made the EU the world's first major trading group to commit itself to a full market opening to the 49 Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Nevertheless, the EU believes that ODA remains a necessary component and the linchpin to developing an equitable and sustainable world. At Monterrey, the EU not only reiterated its call for an increase in the volume of aid, but it also pledged itself to reach a target of 0.39 percent of GDP in development assistance by 2006.
Further, the EU made notable commitments at Monterrey to confront the challenges of financing for development. It seeks to promote a new partnership between developed and developing countries that will mobilize domestic resources, attract international financial flows, promote international trade in accordance with the multilateral trade agenda (providing an engine for development) and encourage sustainable debt financing and external debt relief. In light of these aims, the EU wishes to
actively involve itself, and other members of the international community, in the creation of an effective, efficient, transparent and accountable system for mobilizing the public and private resources to secure education, healthcare, nutrition, and shelter for the people of the world's poorest countries.
To play its role effectively in implementing these goals, the EU supports a dramatic overhaul in the way new development policies are formulated. In particular, the EU has endorsed the Monterrey proposal for closer collaboration between the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Boards of IMF, World Bank and WTO, so that policies can be more coherent, versatile, and provide results on the ground. This proposal was agreed at Johannesburg in September 2002, and the EU promised its
participation in further FfD policy development. In doing so, it is hopes that trade as well as aid will become a major resource for financing development, alongside investment flows.
The set of concrete measures emanating from Brussels, Doha, Monterrey, and Johannesburg underscores the Union's commitment to multilateralism. The EU is convinced that financial solidarity with developing countries must be increased, and that the mobilisation of every possible kind of international resource must be considered. Of course, effective implementation will be key; the EU makes every effort to meet its commitments. However, effective implementation of the goals established at
Monterrey and Johannesburg will also crucially depend upon what is done regionally, nationally and locally. The EU will continue in its efforts to translate political commitment into concrete action at all levels.
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