European Parliament resolution on the reform of the Commission and its implications for the effectiveness of the European Union's relations with developing countries (2000/2051(INI))
Date: 2000-11-30
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: EU aid, EU relations, European Commission, cooperation policy, developing countries, development aid, development policy, management

13.8.2001

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 228/213

Thursday 30 November 2000

12.
Calls on the Commission, in the context of the White Paper on European governance, and in accor-
dance with the undertakings already given by the Commission President, to ascertain whether the alloca-
tion of the responsibilities for implementation with the Member States is in keeping with the subsidiarity
principle, taking into account the specific features of the operational sector and Member States involved,
and ensuring that the Commission does as little management as possible in order to concentrate on initia-
tion, coordination and control;

13.
Insists that Member States recognise their responsibilities to assist the Commission in decentralising
the management of Union policies, including willingness to expose their own public administration to
proper scrutiny by the European and national parliaments and to accept sanctions when they fail to man-
age Union policies correctly;

14.
Hopes also that the deliberations on governance will provide an opportunity for the three institu-
tions to establish a common doctrine for externalisation, the establishment of independent agencies being
justified whenever a scientific opinion or technique is required or decentralised management seems better,
but avoiding any dismembering of the Commission’s political responsibility and ensuring that the latter has
the legal means to account to Parliament and the Council for the way in which the agencies perform their
tasks;

15.
Urges that the principle whereby responsibility for decision-making continues to be political and
rest with the Commission is not watered down in the course of the present Intergovernmental Conference;

Urges support for the role of the Commission as the think-tank and institutional memory of the

16.
Union, and calls for an enhancement of its policy analysis and planning functions;

17.
Is pleased that, in the context of the Cotonou Agreement with the ACP States and the Commission
decision of 16 May 2000 on the reform of the management of external assistance, steps have been taken
towards ensuring decentralised and coordinated external assistance and calls also on the Commission to
conduct an overall study into the problem of the Union’s external representation both in international
negotiations, in international bodies and in dealing with non-Community countries, and to promote the
establishment of a common diplomatic service which is subordinate to it;

18.
Notes that the appointment of a High Representative for the CFSP and the subsequent setting-up of
defence policy bodies is leading to the creation of European authorities that compete unnecessarily with
each other, without the problem of coordinating Member States’ own actions being resolved in an efficient
manner; takes the view that the office of High Representative must in the long run be incorporated into
the Commission;

Calls on the Commission to ensure that the machinery for coordination between Parliament, the

19.
Commission and the Council is in general use to ensure the consistency of decision-making;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the govern-

20.
ments of the Member States.

18. Relations between EU and developing countries

A5-0337/2000

European Parliament resolution on the reform of the Commission and its implications for the
effectiveness of the European Union’s relations with developing countries (2000/2051(INI))

The European Parliament,

6 having regard to the White Paper on reforming the Commission (COM(2000) 200),

6 having regard to the Commission communications of 24 April 2000 (COM(2000) 212) on the Eur-
opean Community’s development policy and of 16 May 2000 (SEC(2000) 814) on the reform of the
management of external aid,

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6 having regard to the Commission proposal of 26 July 2000 on a new Financial Regulation

(COM(2000) 461),

6 recalling its resolutions of 21 September 2000 on complementarity between Community and Member
State policies on development cooperation (1) and of 17 February 2000 on the coherence of the var-
ious Union policies (2),

6 recalling its resolution of 19 January 2000 on the action to be taken on the second report of the
Committee of Independent Experts on the reform of the Commission (3) and its resolutions of 6 July
2000 containing its comments accompanying its decisions giving discharge to the Commission, firstly
in respect of the sixth, seventh and eighth European Development Funds for the 1998 financial year (4)
and secondly in respect of implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the 1998
financial year (5),

6 having regard to the objectives of Title XX, Article 177 of the EC Treaty,

6 having regard to Rule 163 of its Rules of Procedure,

6 having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and Cooperation (A5-0337/2000),

A.

referring to the various Council resolutions on complementarity and coherence between the European
Community’s development policy and the other Community policies, and in particular the General
Affairs Council’s conclusions of 9 October 2000 on the effectiveness of the Union’s external action,

B. whereas development policy objectives are one of the three fundamental pillars of the Union’s external

action, equal to common foreign and security policy and commercial policy objectives,

C. whereas international development aid policy is the greatest expression of the European Community’s

external dimension,

D. whereas the industrialised countries’ public development aid has gradually fallen to a minimum of
0,22 % of overall GDP, far below the objective of 0,7 % recommended in the UN resolution of 1974
on the new international economic order,

E. whereas the conclusions of the General Affairs Council of 9 October 2000 do not refer to the Council
declaration on EU development policy, and include no reference as such to the role of poverty eradi-
cation or the international development targets,

F. whereas a thorough reform of the Community international aid policy is needed in order to improve

its effectiveness,

G. whereas this reform must be focused on:

6 a new definition of development aid policies and priorities, taking into account the aims of era-

dicating poverty established at international summit meetings,

6 improved coordination between the Commission and the Community’s external policies, resulting

in a clear outline of operational coordination and political coherence,

6 stricter application of Article 177 of the EC Treaty regarding the complementarity of development
aid policies between the Member States on the one hand and the Commission on the other,

‘Texts Adopted’, Item 15.

(1)
(2) Texts Adopted, Item 7.
(3) OJ C 304, 24.10.2000, p. 135.
(4)
(5)

‘Texts Adopted’, Item 6.
‘Texts Adopted’, Item 5.

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6 making the staff numbers and volume of financial resources available to the Commission adequate

to realise development policy objectives effectively,

6 reorganisation of the management of aid both on the ground and at headquarters, envisaging:
a simplification of procedures, the integration of the cooperation cycle, and a structure striking
a balance between the Commission’s external relations departments, in which one person would
have political responsibility for development policy and its management would be more transpar-
ent,

H. whereas the Commission is the number one donor of humanitarian aid in the world and directly
administers a substantial proportion of world development aid, but the relative growth in the volume
of funding allocated to aid has not been accompanied by appropriate adjustments in human resources
and management methods,

I. whereas the volume of funding assigned by the EU to development aid is not matched by a propor-

tionate influence on the international stage,

J.

regretting the fact that the Commission, owing to staff shortages, has so far concentrated on the
implementation of policies and instruments, so that planning has mainly been carried out by other
international organisations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the OECD,

K. whereas, furthermore, the Commission’s great experience in implementing development policy has

been analysed and used to only a limited extent,

L.

M.

bearing in mind the outcome of the external assessments of the Community’s aid policies which high-
lighted problems affecting the speed and effectiveness of the implementation of programmes and pro-
jects,

stressing that the support of the European Parliament and the Member States is essential in order to
solve many of the problems affecting the management of Community development aid, in particular
budgetary issues and the procedures for Council intervention,

Points out that the commitments entered into by the international community in order to achieve
in particular, to eradicate poverty constitute a new

1.
quantified sustainable development objectives and,
focus for development to which Community development policy must contribute;

2.
Calls on the Commission to base its reform vis-à-vis external action on a clear and comprehensive
declaration which sets out the EU’s aims for external relations for the 21st century and makes poverty
eradication the overarching objective of such a declaration;

3.
Notes with satisfaction that the Commission has initiated a process of reforming the RELEX Group,
which must undertake to improve the impact of development aid and increase the effectiveness of its
relations with developing countries in the light of its latest objective 6 to promote sustainable develop-
ment in order to foster the eradication of poverty and the integration of these countries in the world
economy;

4.
Expresses, however, its fear that a separation between political responsibility and strategic program-
ming of the implementation and monitoring of programmes may result in the marginalisation of develop-
ment policy within the Commission; considers that political responsibilities must be reflected in the insti-
tution’s structures;

5.
Takes the view, in this context, that an integrated Community International Development Depart-
ment should be made responsible for the whole cooperation cycle for the benefit of developing countries,
covering the programmes for Africa, Latin America, the Mediterranean countries and Asia;

6.
Considers it essential to solve the structural problem of the lack of human resources needed to man-
age development cooperation funds, and hence undertakes to allocate the relevant resources by means of
the budgetary exercise;

7.
Points out that small-scale projects have traditionally received the best scores in evaluations of EU aid
performance; requests, accordingly, that such projects should in the future receive adequate staffing in
order to be maintained and their number even be enlarged;

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Calls on the Council, as one arm of the budgetary authority, to ensure that the financial provisions

8.
reflect the objectives of the Community’s development policy;

Calls on the budgetary authority, in the coming financial years, to make provision for transferring a
9.
specific percentage for administrative expenditure to each operational budget line for development coop-
eration;

Considers it decisive that the Commission should, in the context of development policy, have suffi-
10.
cient and appropriately trained staff to ensure that the functions of reflection, analysis and making propo-
sals can be carried out;

Calls on the Commission to submit to Parliament, during the first half of 2001, a report on the

11.
implementation of the various elements of the reform of RELEX;

12.
Considers that the transfer of powers to the delegations constitutes an opportunity to create a sys-
tem for on-the-spot management of development projects and appropriation and reinforcement of local
capacity; is therefore in favour of rapid decentralisation to the benefit of the delegations, giving them the
necessary IT infrastructure and boosting the human resources devoted to development policy; is also in
favour of projects and programmes being taken over by beneficiaries, including the contracting of local
agents, where conditions of good governance and democracy prevail;

Stresses the need for more specialised staff at the RELEX DGs in order to create specialists, in

13.
particular programming experts and sectoral experts;

14.
Considers that the creation of the Common Service for External Relations (SCR) constituted a failed
attempt to rationalise the administration of Community aid and that the unclear distribution of responsi-
bilities between various departments reduced its effectiveness; in this context highlights the need to inte-
grate the whole cooperation cycle and is in favour of responsibility for the whole development coopera-
tion cycle being assigned to one and the same body, with one Commissioner having political responsibility
for it, namely the Commissioner responsible for development policy; believes that this would improve the
efficiency of the Commission administration as well as the visibility of the Commission’s action in this
field, without affecting the distribution of responsibilities between Commissioners;

15.
Upholds the specific identity of Community development policy and its added value, and strongly
deplores the view, prevailing in a number of Member States, that development aid should be renationa-
lised; believes strongly that the development policies of Member States should be complementary to and
should not attempt to replace or duplicate Community development policy; in view of the importance
which it attributes to public Community-level policy in the development sphere, also advocates that all
programme management be concentrated in the Commission and the delegation of such activities to exter-
nal agencies strictly limited;

Notes the plan to set up a new Community aid management body based on the SCR transformed
16.
into an Office, and considers that it must take a form compatible with the aims of greater effectiveness of
Community aid; the form it takes must in any event ensure the unity of Community action and ensure that
the Commission can control the body; to this extent the EP will maintain political control over its activ-
ities;

Considers, also, that the creation of this body must entail the simplification of management proce-

17.
dures, in particular as regards the cofinancing of projects with NGOs;

18.
Expresses the conviction that the NGOs have the ability to implement programmes specifically
targeted at combating poverty, and considers that the Commission must make greater use of this potential;

Considers that the EU should develop strategies to promote vibrant and strong civil societies in
19.
recipient countries; that the EU should seek to collaborate with civil society sectors, including NGOs and
the private sector, in all areas of external cooperation, to realise development objectives, and that civil
society organisations should be considered essential and independent partners of the EU who play a sig-
nificant role in the development process; the EU should encourage greater policy dialogue with civil
society and greater collaboration at a programme level;

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20.
Stresses the importance of a proper assessment of the impact of external aid programmes, so that
the positive and negative lessons may have a bearing on the planning and implementation of subsequent
measures; stresses the need to train staff specialised in this field and to give the evaluation unit the staff
and powers needed to ensure that its work improves the impact and effectiveness of development aid
policy;

21. With regard to comitology, agrees with the Commission that the role of the Council’s working
groups and committees needs to evolve so as to concentrate on political guidelines, the periodic revision
of the strategies of each of the countries, sectoral strategies and issues requiring European coordination
prior to international deliberations;

22. Welcomes the Commission’s initiative to review all the regulations concerning development policy
in order to study the feasibility of introducing a horizontal regulation making it possible to concentrate the
work of the committees at the programming stage and to eliminate the systematic revision of all projects;

23.
Highlights the importance of ‘country strategy papers’ and NIPs (National Indicative Programmes) as
an instrument for promoting both complementarity with the Member States and the participation of ben-
eficiaries in the programming of cooperation by means of dialogue and the transmission of information,
thus moving towards the idea of handing over development projects to the beneficiaries where appropriate
conditions obtain;

24.
Stresses the need to step up the presence of the EU in fora where key issues for developing econo-
mies are debated and to improve the coordination of the positions of the Member States and the EU in the
various international fora, especially the Bretton Woods institutions and the UN, where the EU’s political
role should be commensurate with the level of its contributions;

25.
Reiterates the importance of forwarding information to the EP before policies are adopted and, in
any event, at the same time as it is forwarded to the Council, with regard to Community aid policy guide-
lines, forecasts and programming, without this meaning that the EP should interfere with the Commission’s
management role;

26.
Considers that an effort should be made in the new structure to ensure coherence between the
Community’s external, development, commercial, agricultural, fisheries, research and development and
food safety and hygiene policies; considers that coherence impact assessments should be made in the for-
mulation of all new policies and practices, in addition to the publication of the annual report, to be scru-
tinised by both the Council and Parliament, in line with its abovementioned resolution of 17 February
2000 on the coherence of the various Union policies;

Stresses that the RELEX reform process must be carried out in an open and transparent way, with
27.
the participation of the staff of the departments involved in the reform process and paying particular
attention to preserving, throughout the transitional period, the objectives of an effective European devel-
opment policy, as well as the commitments entered into with the beneficiary countries;

28.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.