Fuente: © European Parliament
http://www.europarl.eu.int/

EU: Follow-up to the 2005 Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness

/noticias.info/ Simplifying aid procedures and phasing out economic policy conditionality are among the demands of the European Parliament in a report on aid effectiveness to developing countries. To be more efficient, aid should also be disbursed according to partners´ own priorities and timetables, says the report adopted with 443 votes in favour, 8 against and 11 abstentions. The report also underlines the necessary fight against corruption.

The Paris Declaration, endorsed on 2 March 2005, is an international agreement to which over one hundred Ministers, Heads of Agencies and other Senior Officials adhered and committed their countries and organisations to continue to increase efforts in harmonisation, alignment and managing aid for results with a set of monitorable actions and indicators.

The 'international aid effectiveness agenda' established by the Paris Declaration in 2005 aims to ensure that the ultimate objective of the aid system as a whole, namely the fight against poverty, is being met.

With this in mind, the report drafted by Johan VAN HECKE (ALDE, BE) calls on the Commission to set up two new instruments: an indicator to monitor parliamentary scrutiny in the countries receiving development aid which will increase accountability and permit more strategic forms of oversight, and a revision of the Donor Atlas initiative to promote cross-country policy dialogue between European donors and tackle the problem of orphan countries and sectors.

MEPs call for the simplification of aid procedures and "considers that increasing transparency of information on aid flows is a critical objective for improving the effective use of aid and mutual accountability".

In recognition of the role of corruption in obstructing the effectiveness of aid, the report calls on the Commission to "ensure greater accountability as well as transparency of countries' public financial management systems" and to take practical measures to fight corruption, for example, by supporting civil society initiatives.

Member States and the Commission are urged to "phase out policy-oriented conditionality" to support a common understanding on key priorities, and the report stresses the need for the international financial institutions and donor countries to publish the conditions for granting development aid, "so that genuine democratic control can be exercised by parliaments, local authorities and civil societies".

The report also stresses the need to disburse aid according to the partners' priorities and timelines, and supports the Commission's choice to increasingly use budget support, enabling national parliaments, local authorities, civil society and the EP to trace the results of the EU contributions.

Finally, the role of women and diasporas are highlighted in the report, as there is a disproportionate impact of poverty on women and the involvement of people of foreign origin in a partnership between the EU and their country of origin "is a powerful factor of integration".

UK and Ireland

In 2007 Ireland reached its highest ever level for development aid with 0.54% of GNP, an increase of 6.7% on its 2006 figures. Within the European Union, only Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Luxembourg allocate a greater percentage of GNP to overseas development assistance than Ireland.

The UK is among the eleven EU Member States to reduce its development contributions, resulting in the percentage spent on development aid across the EU falling from 0.41% of GNP in 2006 to 0.38% in 2007. The EU Member States have spent less on development aid than they had promised, with 1.8 billion euros missing. notas_de_prensa_archivo