EU Council Conclusions - Annual Report 2005 on European Community's Development Policy and Implementation of External Assistance in 2004

Sumario: EU Council Conclusions - Annual Report 2005 on European Community's Development Policy and Implementation of External Assistance in 2004 (21 November 2005: Brussels)

COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS ON ANNUAL REPORT 2005 ON THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY'S DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE IN 2004, 2690th GENERAL AFFAIRS Council meeting, Brussels

The Council adopted the following conclusions:

"RECALLING the Statement by the Commission and the Council of November 2000 on the EC's Development Policy and the Council's conclusions of 31 May and 8 November 2001 on the followup of EC development policy;

RECALLING its conclusions of 17 November 2003, and those of 23 November 2004, on the Annual Reports on the EC's Development Policy and the implementation of external assistance in 2002 and 2003;

THE COUNCIL:

1. WELCOMES the Annual Report of the Commission on the EC's development policy and the implementation of external assistance in 2004;

2. COMMENDS the Commission for the further improvements made with respect to previous Annual Reports, such as a stronger focus on results and on helping to reach the Millennium Development Goals;

3. NOTES with approval the Commission's further development of an impact assessment framework based on 10 core indicators related to the Millennium Development goals, and ENCOURAGES the Commission systematically to analyse the effectiveness of its country programmes on the basis of this framework;

4. WELCOMES the analysis of the implementation of the 2000 Development Policy Statement, and the efforts made to describe the EC's contribution to poverty reduction and the Millennium Development Goals in each region and thematic programme; and INVITES the Commission to develop its management indicators further so that they clearly articulate specific objectives arising from the development policy, and enable a systematic and regular assessment of their achievement in each region;

5. WELCOMES the provision by the Commission of a short Executive Summary aimed at meeting the needs of a broader audience; and INVITES the Commission to focus the analysis in forthcoming Summaries on the evidence of results and impact of its assistance, including key financial information;

6. WELCOMES the overall increase in the disbursement rate of over 10%, including the 5% increase in disbursements to ACP countries, to the highest level on record;

7. NOTES with concern that despite an increase in 2004 of 10% in the amounts flowing to low income and least-developed countries, their proportion of Community development assistance, after rising from 32% in 2000 to 44% in 2003, has fallen back in 2004 by 0.8%;

RECALLS that in November 2004 it underlined the need to find ways to increase focus on the poorest, with a specific focus in Africa; and ASKS the Commission to present in next year's report a more detailed breakdown of payments, including both total amounts and percentage shares, to the different income groups of beneficiary countries, taking into account the relatively large proportion of total payments (including activities such as regional cooperation) which are currently reported as unallocable, but which nevertheless substantially benefit the least developed and other low-income countries; and also to report on measures to ensure a greater impact on poverty and inequality in middle income countries;

8. RECALLS its decision in May 2004 to approve a new European Neighbourhood policy; WELCOMES in this context the 60% increase in 2004 in disbursements in the MEDA programme; and INVITES the Commission to increase the emphasis of its programmes in the ENP regions on strengthening poverty-reducing growth and economic transition, encouraging democracy, good governance, the rule of law and human rights, and in the MEDA region in particular improving standards of education, especially for women and girls;

9. ENCOURAGES the Commission to continue to increase the impact of its programmes in the current TACIS region particularly on economic transition, human rights and on reinforcing the health sector;

10. NOTES that about 90% of ongoing projects are assessed as delivering the results intended; and REQUESTS the Commission to focus its evaluation efforts on analysing the reliability of such current indications in predicting the impact and sustainability of the interventions after project completion;

11. WELCOMES the progress made in monitoring and evaluation of the Commissions' programmes, in particular the steps taken to improve the quality of assistance and strengthen the focus on impact and results, and INVITES the Commission to analyse in future Reports more fully how lessons learnt from evaluations have been incorporated into its programming; and to indicate how they could influence the way forward of the EC's development assistance in the future;

12. WELCOMES the Commission's emphasis on the partner countries' ownership of the harmonisation agenda including co-operation with other donors, and its continuing efforts to help to improve the effectiveness of its assistance through increased coherence, complementarity, donor coordination, harmonisation and alignment in support of partner country owned harmonisation initiatives; in this connection the Council RECALLS that the Member States and the Commission can, when at the country level deemed feasible and appropriate, formulate a flexible roadmap as an instrument to indicate the steps the Member States and the Commission will take to contribute to the realisation of the country based action plan, and INVITES the Commission, in next year's Annual Report, to report on progress in implementing the commitments made in the context of the 2005 Paris High Level Forum on aid effectiveness, including in the neighbourhood countries; and further INVITES the Commission to present a thorough analysis of the framework of specific co-operation with multilateral agencies including the United Nations and the World Bank;

13. WELCOMES the presentation of a separate qualitative assessment of the reform of EC's external assistance, as requested in the Council's Conclusions on the Annual Report in November 2004; and INVITES the Commission to continue to report on the impact of the reforms in future Annual Reports and to comment on areas where further improvements are needed;

14. NOTES that the process of devolving management responsibility to Delegations was largely completed in 2004; RECALLS the assessment made recently by the Court of Auditors of its impact; and ASKS the Commission in its next report to show how it has addressed the relevant concerns and recommendations, notably on adequate professional staffing;

15. WELCOMES the Commission's support to the new Member States' progress in becoming effective participants in EU development policy and requests that the Commission's efforts be further adjusted to support their specific needs, in particular the emphasis on raising public awareness, with a view also to the acceding countries;

16. WELCOMES the progress made on mainstreaming gender considerations in the Commission's programmes, and ENCOURAGES the Commission to continue this progress and to take necessary steps for mainstreaming of other issues such as democracy, good governance and the rule of law, human rights, the rights of the child and environmental sustainability;

17. REQUESTS the Commission to present the 2006 Annual Report sooner after the reporting period, and not later than June each year, to maximise the relevance of the information at the time the Report is published, and to allow a better reflection of lessons learned in the forthcoming planning period. "

Ref: CL05-298EN
Fuente UE: Consejo
Foro NU:
Fecha: 21/11/2005

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