Debate: Policy Coherence for Development
Date: MONDAY, 13 MARCH 2023
Speaker: Frans Timmermans
Language: EN

But then our efforts need to be coherent. In my own work, I encounter this a lot. Let me give you one example: our sister continent, Africa. We want Africa to develop for all sorts of reasons for Africa, but also for selfish reasons, obviously. And we want Africa to go through the energy transition without repeating the mistakes we’ve made. And if we do this in a coherent way, we’ll not just bring clean energy to Africa, we will also bring development because it will have a huge positive impact on the health-care situation if women in Africa, because mostly women do the cooking, if they no longer have to do the cooking on charcoal but can do it with the help of photovoltaic heat, then they no longer have to inhale the fumes, nor the babies they carry on their back. So it has a huge impact on the development of health. Education is another example, and many other examples could be given. So coherence is of the utmost importance, and I work hand-in-hand with Commissioner Urpilainen to align our actions on this. I want to warmly thank the rapporteur, Ms Ochojska, if I say it correctly, for her work and, as Ms Ochojska is someone who watches the stars light years away with the same intensity as she watches her fellow citizens right next to her, and she has throughout her career always paid as much attention to the stars, but much more even to the plight of people in difficult situations. So that she would be the rapporteur on this issue is just an epiphany. It’s right and it’s just, and I want to salute her for being a true humanitarian. Commissioner Urpilainen asked me to pass on three messages here today. First, since the evaluation of our policies in 2019, we have made progress. Under the European consensus development policy, coherence is now a key element of Europe’s work on the Sustainable Development Goals under our 2030 agenda. The Commission is acting in a very concrete manner to implement this. For example, our impact assessments for new regulations must take into account the effects of the EU legislation on our partner countries. Our EU delegations around the world are tasked to monitor the impact closely and we have strengthened their resources to do so. Second, the Commission is now preparing the first EU voluntary review on our development policies and this will include reporting on development policy coherence. We will present the results at the United Nations in July this year. Third, we take the external evaluations of the results of our work very seriously. We will continue to make improvements whenever and wherever necessary. During its mid-term review, the OECD already noted our clear progress in this field. The bigger picture: collaboration will be essential going forward. In the Commission, we see development policy coherence as a responsibility for everyone. So in this sense, Team Europe goes beyond what we traditionally define as Team Europe, it applies to the whole of the Commission. But we also need to cooperate very closely with you, with Parliament. We would welcome very much working with you on development policy coherence so that together we can also ask for a more proactive role from the Council and the Member States. Only by joining forces, we can ensure that something happens. I will do then my work on climate and energy diplomacy, and I know that it will be done in all other policy areas as well. Our European efforts to try and build a sustainable society of the future will work best if we do not just not leave anyone behind in Europe, but if we also leave no one behind in the rest of the world.