Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-14-Speech-3-404"
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"en.20070214.25.3-404"2
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"Mr President, I would like firstly to thank Mr Gahler and his colleagues for this report.
Finally, even though the positive conclusions of recent independent assessments of budget aid are encouraging, we agree on the need continually to assess the effectiveness of budget aid and guarantee that the results are communicated clearly, in order to obtain the citizens’ support for development cooperation.
The Commission is convinced that, in order to consolidate the governments’ capacity to plan and implement macroeconomic reforms, sectoral reforms and reforms of their public finances, and also to stimulate growth and alleviate poverty, budget aid can be more effective than other kinds of aid, provided that certain eligibility conditions are met. I would like to stress that last caveat; provided that certain eligibility conditions are met.
Budget aid provides funding with regard to the capital costs and the spending necessary in order to achieve the millennium development objectives, such as the construction of schools, hospitals or roads, paying teachers, nurses and maintaining infrastructures, etc.
Furthermore, by supporting a country's budget, rather than a specific project, not only are the transaction costs reduced, but also, at the same time, local authorities are given more responsibility for the use of the funds, provided that there is a mechanism for controlling the use of those funds in the beneficiary countries. That is one of the eligibility conditions that I mentioned just now.
Experience over recent years demonstrates that budgetary support can – and in fact often does – meet these expectations. This is confirmed by the highly positive assessment made last year by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee of the support for the general budget in seven countries analysed by that committee.
We are therefore pleased with the comments in Mr Gahler's report on budgetary aid as a fundamental instrument of the European Union’s development cooperation. This is something that was also expressed in the European consensus on development, approved last year. This consensus, this joint declaration by Parliament, the Council and the Commission, commits us to increasing budget aid, provided that conditions allow it. We are working intensively with the Member States and other bodies in order to ensure that this commitment is fulfilled, in full compliance with the established legal framework.
I would, however, like to respond to an issue raised in Mr Gahler's report, but which we believe is not entirely in line with reality. According to our analysis, budget aid is not synonymous with a lack of prudence or with bad management, but rather the opposite. The Commission applies strict eligibility criteria when deciding which countries should receive budget aid. Those criteria are reassessed before each payment, within the framework of the general aid programme. The objective is to minimise the risk of budget aid being squandered and trying to prevent it from being used inappropriately.
Furthermore, improving the management of public finances is a key objective of our budget aid. Our approach is to assess the direction and credibility of the reforms of public finance management that our aid may support, and not so much to demand that any specific minimum standards are adhered to. This approach is shared by other budget aid bodies and was not questioned in the 2005 Special Report of the Court of Auditors, whose main recommendations have been taken into account by the Commission in drawing up a revised series of guidelines for budget aid.
We entirely agree with the report’s demand that institutions playing a crucial role in controlling the executive be consolidated, but we believe that these institutions must be national, conforming to the local political framework, and not foreign bodies that must answer to donors. Generally speaking, the Commission believes that good governance, which is crucial to development, cannot be imposed from the outside. The establishment of innovative associations, drawn up in accordance with the initiative on governance and with the Commission’s Communication on this issue, is a promising way to promote good governance."@en1
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