A word from Simon Stocker on Europe under the Lisbon Treaty

Source: Concord Flash 62, June 2009

Which Development for the new Europe?
The newly elected Members of the European Parliament will be faced with critical challenges during their five year term of office. While uncertainty remains over the future of the Lisbon Treaty, Parliament will undoubtedly oversee the implementation of many of the Treaty’s provisions. This is important for the European Union’s relations with the rest of the world. The Treaty seeks to strengthen the Union’s role in the world through enhancing its common foreign policy capacity - an objective that is to be welcomed.

Throughout the EU’s 50 year history its development cooperation has been the centre piece of its external policy. As a collective group of nations, the EU continues to provide more than 50% of the world’s official development aid, a position that brings some responsibility for ensuring that the Union’s relations with developing countries are pursued first and foremost in accordance with its development policy. However, this cannot be achieved through aid alone.

The EU’s identity through development cooperation
The Lisbon Treaty should re-enforce the EU’s position as a global leader in development. It reflects the emphasis of development cooperation as a nurturing policy in international relations, recognising this in the context of the Union’s expanding membership. It identifies development cooperation as an independent policy area with EU competency providing the principal framework for the EU’s relations with all developing countries, and sets the eradication of poverty as the single principle objective of this policy.

In so doing it establishes the relationship of this overarching objective to other external policy areas. The objective of poverty eradication must be taken into account when actions relating to other policies are planned and implemented, thereby establishing a hierarchical relationship in relation to the EU’s approaches to developing countries.

A key question will be how the inevitable reforms to the institutions ensure the effective implementation of the Lisbon Treaty’s provisions and intentions. They will need to ensure that there is a single dedicated development service within the Commission embracing the EU’s relations with all developing countries that guarantees development as an independent policy area. Not only regarding aid delivery, but also with the capacity to assert the political interests of the Union’s development policy. This requires an experienced Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid sitting as an equal with all other Commissioners in the college. The creation of the Union’s diplomatic service must respect the integrity of development and humanitarian aid as a Community Policy.

In the words of Mirjam van Reisen, author of Window of Opportunity – EU Development Cooperation after the Cold War, “EU development policy reflects the EU’s identity and the importance given to values expressed in the slogan ‘unity through diversity’ - upholding international human rights, supporting accountable and inclusive democracies, creating conducive environments for the involvement of women in peace-building and conflict resolution; and creating sustainable economies with regulatory frameworks that
protect against excessive gaps between rich and poor.”

Simon Stocker, Director of Eurostep, member of the CONCORD Policy Forum

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Simon Stocker on the implications of the Lisbon Treaty

Source: Concord Flash 50, March 2008

The ratification of the Lisbon Treaty over the coming months will be important if we are to capitalise on the gains that it contains for development policies.

The new treaty clearly identifies the European Union’s development policy as providing the principal framework governing the EU’s cooperation with all developing countries. It places the eradication of poverty as the overarching objective for development cooperation and identifies the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as central. The treaty also maintains the principle that all EU policies having an impact on developing countries must be coherent with the Union’s development policies and their implementation. Additionally, for the first time in a treaty, it includes a legal provision on the EU’s humanitarian assistance to all parts of the world.

Although the Lisbon Treaty is all we hoped for in strengthening the legal base for Europe’s development cooperation policy, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. As soon as it is ratified, the negotiations on its implementation will start. Many questions about the new ways in which development aid will be delivered still remain to be answered. For instance, what will be the exact role of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in development cooperation; how will the European External Action Service (EEAS) function; what are the consequences of the Lisbon Treaty for the EU budget; and what is the role of the European Parliament (EP) in development cooperation policies? The future negotiations will bring the answers to these questions, but NGOs would be wise to start deliberating on their position on these different issues now.

Some arguments and answers
The fact that the Lisbon Treaty gives development cooperation and humanitarian aid a clear and separate role in the EU’s relations with the developing world needs to be acknowledged at the political level, by allowing for a separate Commissioner for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid now and in the future. His/her remit should cover not only all developing countries (as identified by the OECD DAC criteria), but also all development issues. He/she needs to be supported by his/her own Directorate-General, responsible not only for drafting but also for implementing development and humanitarian aid policies.

This means that the role of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy needs to be clearly defined. The High Representative will be based in the Council of the EU and will chair the Council of Ministers dealing with external issues. He/she will also have a foot in the Commission, as a Vice-President with the role of coordinating all of the EU’s external policy areas: the foreign and security policies that fall under the remit of the Council, as well as those for which the Commission has competence – including development, trade, economic cooperation, and humanitarian aid. As coordinator he/she will have to ensure that the Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid can play his/her role fully and that development and humanitarian aid policies are not subordinated to other external relations policies.

The High Representative will be supported by the European External Action Service (EEAS) in implementing her/his role in both the Council and the Commission. However, so far there has been no clear indication as to how the EEAS will fit into these bodies’ administrative and budgetary set-ups. It must be made clear, though, that development and humanitarian assistance will have a special place in the EEAS, together with sufficient funding to allow the full attainment of the EU’s development objective of poverty eradication and the achievement of the MDGs.

The European Parliament is the personification of democratic scrutiny. Although the Lisbon Treaty has expanded its role, the EP’s power to scrutinize development cooperation needs to be increased and fully implemented. As co-legislator, in the past the EP has ensured that the funds provided through the Development Cooperation Instrument went to finance legitimate development activities, as defined by agreements made within the DAC. It should be given the opportunity to have a similar impact on the EDF by budgeting for it, now that the Lisbon Treaty has created the space for it to do so.

As NGOs, we need to put our weight behind these requirements to ensure that the EU delivers on its commitment to help eradicate poverty.

Simon Stocker is Director of Eurostep

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