European Development Fund Information
The European Development Fund (EDF) is the main instrument for European Union (EU) aid for development cooperation in Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP Group) countries and the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT). Funding is provided by voluntary donations by EU member states.[1]
Articles 131 and 136 of the 1957 Treaty of Rome provided for its creation with a view to granting technical and financial assistance to African countries that were still colonised at that time and with which certain countries had historical links.
Usually lasting 6 years, each EDF lays out EU assistance to both individual countries and regions as a whole. The EU is currently on its 10th EDF from 2008-2013 with a budget of €22.7 billion.[1] This currently represent about 30% of EU spending on development cooperation aid, with the remainder coming directly from the EU budget.[1]
The budget of the 10th EDF can be broken down as follows:[2]
- €21 966 million to the ACP countries (97% of the total),
- €17 766 million to the national and regional indicative programmes (81% of the ACP total),
- €2 700 million to intra-ACP and intra-regional cooperation (12% of the ACP total),
- €1 500 million to Investment Facilities (7% of the ACP total).
- €286 million to the OCTs (1% of the total),
- €430 million to the Commission as support expenditure for programming and implementation of the EDF (2% of the total).
There is currently a debate on whether to 'budgetise' the EDF[1]. The perceived advantages include[1]:
- contributions would be based on GNI and this may increase the currently voluntary contributions
- the harmonisation of EU budget and EDF administration might decrease administration costs and increase effectiveness of the aid
- 20% of aid to the ACP countries already originates from the EU budget
- an all-ACP geographic strategy is no longer relevant as programmes are more localised to regions or country-level
- there would be increase democratic control and parliamentary scrutiny
The perceived disadvantages are that[1]:
- 90% of EDF resources reach low-income countries as opposed to less than 40% of aid from the EU budget development instruments
- a loss of aid predictability and aid quality as the EU budget is annual, unlike the 6-year budget of the EDF
See also
- Development Cooperation Instrument
- ACP-EU Development Cooperation
- ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
- EuropeAid Co-Operation Office
- The Courier (ACP-EU) : The magazine of Africa-Caribbean-Pacific and European Union cooperation and relations
References
- ^ a b c d e f Mikaela Gavas 2010. Financing European development cooperation: the Financial Perspectives 2014-2020. London: Overseas Development Institute
- ^ "European Development Fund (EDF)". European Commission. http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/how/finance/edf_en.htm. Retrieved 09 October 2011.
External links
- Europa: Summaries of EU legislation: European Development Fund
- What is 10th EDF programming? EC aid programming for ACP countries
- EC Aid to Africa African Voices in Europe
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