Guidelines for strengthening operational coordination between the Community and the Member States in the field of development cooperation (Text adopted by the Council on 9 March 1998) (98/C 97/01)

1. In its conclusions of 5 June 1997, the Council considered that operational coordination between the Community and the Member States should be strengthened in all developing countries with which the EU has established cooperation relations on the basis of new guidelines. These new guidelines shall be implemented in a pragmatic way, taking into account capacity on the ground, and local constraints. They should also take account of the 1994 guidelines, the lessons learned in the pilot phase, and be based on the following principles:

- coordination activities should be tailored to the specific situation in each country, and in each sector or area of development cooperation,

- they should be carried out in close cooperation with the recipient country, with a view to strengthening its capacity to assume its responsibility for and ownership of its development strategies and programmes and reinforcing the government's lead role in general aid coordination,

- EU coordination should be linked to other existing donor coordination mechanisms at the country level,

- the coordination activities should ensure a coherent EU input in wider donor coordination mechanisms and consistency with common policy guidelines adopted by the Council,

- EU coordination must be undertaken in such a way that it maximises the added value for the beneficiary countries.

2. This implies that EU coordination should be undertaken as part of the overall aid coordination process in the partner country, while maximising its specific benefits in each individual situation. In this context, the Commission and the Member States should support efforts of the partner country to increasingly take a lead role in their overall aid coordination.

The specific role and modalities of EU coordination, and its input into wider aid coordination mechanisms including other donors, should be jointly determined in each partner country, and for each sector or area of development cooperation. To facilitate this, the representatives of the Member States and the Commission should undertake, in consultation with the partner country, a joint stocktaking of the situation, in particular with respect to the following areas:

- the priorities and policies of the partner country for each sector and area of development cooperation,

- the policies and activities supported by the Community and the Member States concerned in each of these sectors and areas,

- the existence and functioning of coordination mechanisms including other donors,

- the role of the partner country in existing coordination mechanisms,

- the institutional capacity of the partner country to lead aid coordination,

- the role of the Member States and the Commission in the enhanced coordination exercise.

This stocktaking should be regularly updated.

3. On the basis of this stocktaking, the representatives of the Member States and the Community should agree on the modalities of reinforced coordination and make the necessary working arrangements, building on existing EU coordination mechanisms, including at sectoral level. These arrangements should aim to cover all cooperation instruments and areas.

4. In principle, the delegation of the European Commission, working in close conjunction with the Presidency, should initiate and monitor this overall process of strengthening operational on-the-spot coordination between the Community and the Member States, in consultation with, and with the support of the representatives of the Member States.

By common accord and with due regard to individual situations, the representatives of the Commission and the Member States could entrust one Member State or the Commission with the task of monitoring the operational coordination in a certain sector or area of development cooperation, in the context of the overall coordination exercise.

In countries where the Commission does not have a resident delegation, the representative of the Presidency should initiate the coordination process. The representatives of the Member States should, by common accord, entrust one Member State with the task of monitoring the process, working in close conjunction with the competent delegation situated in a third country.

On the request of a Member State which does not have a resident embassy in a given partner country, the Commission delegation should provide information on the results of operational coordination.

5. The modalities of operational coordination between the Community and the Member States could include, in particular:

(a) Meetings between representatives of Member States and the EC delegation

Such meetings should be held monthly, or as required, at the invitation, after consultation with the Presidency, of the EC delegation, or the Member State having a lead role for a given sector.

The objectives of such meetings are to:

(i) establish and maintain an up-to-date overview among participants of the sectoral priorities currently supported and of the on-going and planned activities of development assistance of the Community and the Member States and to discuss recent developments and experiences in this regard;

(ii) identify and address duplication and opportunities for reinforcement in the activities of the Member States and the Community, with a view to enhancing their complementarity, also taking account of the activities of other donors;

(iii) discuss, and where possible, adopt a common approach on the coordination and cooperation with other donors for each sector or area of development cooperation, and on the cooperation with the partner country;

(iv) promote a coordinated approach of the Member States and the Commission in supporting the sectoral policies adopted by the partner country, and where appropriate, to prepare a coherent input in the development and implementation of sector programmes with the participation of other donors and under the leadership of the partner country;

(v) exchange information and views on the priorities to be set - based on the needs identified by the partner country - for the programming of the next phase of development assistance to be provided by the Member States and the Community, taking account of the differences in timing and procedure. These consultations should be held at a very early stage in the programming process of each party and should be compatible with sector programmes.

(b) Exchange of information

The Member States and the Commission should keep each other informed about their policies, as well as evaluations, missions and studies and their on-going and future activities of development assistance, in the partner country concerned. Where relevant, such information should be shared with other donors.

To this end, the representatives of the Member States and the Commission on the spot should disseminate, in summary, and whenever possible, in written form, information on their policies and on-going or planned aid activities. The exchange of information could be facilitated through a database model, provided by the Commission, which would be offered to the representatives of the Member States and the Commission on the spot. On the occasion of major missions to the country concerned by representatives from the Commission or Member States, briefings and debriefings should be organised.

The longer term objective should be to help develop the capacity of the government of the partner country in relation to the exchange and use of information which is relevant to its development process, through building local institutional capacity.

(c) Joint studies, analyses and evaluations

In sectors or areas where several Member States and the Community are active, studies, analyses and evaluations could increasingly be carried out jointly in cooperation with the partner country and where appropriate, with other donors.

The partner country should increasingly be responsible for and take the lead in public expenditure reviews, and, where possible, studies and analyses.

(d) Joint programmes

Where appropriate, joint programmes could be undertaken, in cooperation with the partner country and, possibly, other donors. Such joint programmes should increasingly, and as far as possible, take the form of sector programmes and ensure a leading role of the government.

(e) Aid modalities

If necessary, the aid programmes of the Member States concerned, or the Community's indicative programmes could be adapted, in accordance with the relevant procedures, and in agreement with the partner country, if it becomes apparent that there is significant duplication of efforts, or gaps in their overall activities.

Wherever possible, both the Community and the Member States should aim at achieving a progessive harmonisation of procedures, as regards in particular the format of financing proposals, agreements and programme implementation procedures. Field coordination should go hand in hand with a symmetric coordination due to take place at Headquarters' level.

6. The Member States and the Community shall make joint efforts to optimise the functioning of existing aid/donor coordination mechanisms, by ensuring, in particular, the linkage with the beneficiary government's own policies at sectoral and general levels; the contribution of these coordination mechanisms to assisting the government in defining and implementing appropriate sectoral policies and sector programmes, and an increasingly active role of the partner country in the aid coordination process.

Where these mechanisms exist already, the Commission and the Member States shall do their utmost to assist them wherever they can, by playing a full part in the process, and supplying all requested information as promptly and fully as possible.

7. All these coordination activities should be undertaken in such a way that they maximise the added value for the partner countries.

8. The representatives of the Member States and the Community shall establish a joint report on the measures taken and on the progress achieved in strengthening operational EU coordination, in the course of 1999.

9. The Council will examine the general progress achieved on the basis of these guidelines at its meeting in the second half of 1998, and requests the Commission to make a preliminary report to that meeting.

10. In countries where these guidelines have already been implemented, the representatives of the Member States and the Commission will advise their authorities of ways in which coordination could be strengthened locally.

11. Based on the joint reports mentioned in paragraph 8, and the preliminary report referred to in paragraph 9, the Council will examine the possibility of further developing these guidelines.