Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-10-24-Speech-1-258-000"
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"en.20111024.23.1-258-000"2
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"Madam President, the fourth high-level forum on aid effectiveness, which will be held at the end of November in Busan, provides the international community with the opportunity to reaffirm, deepen and reformulate its commitments to ensuring more effective aid and to promoting development. A great deal is obviously expected of this meeting, which it is hoped will give vital impetus to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals ahead of the crucial 2015 deadline.
Several challenges need to be met if the Busan meeting is to be a success. Firstly, there is the implementation challenge. The latest assessments of the follow-up to the implementation of the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda on aid effectiveness show that we are on the right track. Putting these commitments into practice has improved the quality of aid by enhancing good practice. However, progress is limited and unevenly spread between donor countries and recipient countries, and reforms are being applied too slowly.
At EU level, a recent Commission study showed that the Member States could have saved the EU some EUR 6 billion per year by implementing the principles of the Code of Conduct on the Division of Labour more resolutely. This is clearly a huge opportunity for development that has been lost.
The second challenge, which is, in fact, linked to the first, is political. Political will is needed in Busan. Strong European leadership and political commitments are needed to ensure that progress is made internationally on the issue of development aid effectiveness.
Lastly, there is the challenge of adaptation, the heart of the Paris Declaration. The five principles of aid effectiveness must not be forgotten, of course; they must act as a basis for the improved agenda that we will have to create. Development cooperation must adapt to the needs of a changing world. The emergence of new donors, the increased involvement of private operators, the variety of development contexts, and the keen interest in South-South cooperation must result in a fundamental change in the way aid effectiveness is viewed today. An effective and genuinely inclusive partnership must therefore be established in Busan, with account taken of the different circumstances in which aid is distributed today.
My report defines the areas in which additional efforts are needed with regard to aid effectiveness, be they democratic ownership and alignment with the priorities of recipients, the division of labour and improved coordination among donors, the necessary transparency of aid or the issue of aid fragmentation and predictability. I am also pleased to note that there is a real consensus of opinion with the Commission, which, in its communication of 7 September, proposed a common EU position for the Busan meeting that is essentially based on the same points.
The EU and its Member States have, in the past, played a very important role in the definition of the international aid effectiveness agenda, from the Paris forum to the Accra meeting, to ensure that a number of clear commitments are honoured more quickly. The EU and its Member States today contribute more than half of the official development assistance that is distributed worldwide. Furthermore, the Treaty of Lisbon has put poverty eradication at the heart of European development policy.
We have here a wonderful opportunity to improve our instruments and thus achieve better results with regard to development. In view of our past commitment and of the particular responsibility borne by the European Union and the Member States with regard to development assistance, we have a duty to prove that we are equal to the challenges and to adopt an ambitious position in Busan.
The ball is now in the court of the Council, which will shortly have to adopt a common EU position for the Fourth Forum. The proposals contained in my report are a good starting point for trying to gain the support of all the States for clear principles that can give direction to our future aid effectiveness efforts. We must respond to the calls for efficiency and democratic ownership coming from recipient countries through a new development partnership that is focused on the actual impact of aid on the achievement of the development objectives. It must take account of the various situations individually and aim to bring the international community together so as to encourage more coordinated and less fragmented action."@en1
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