The Committee on Development adopted the own-initiative report drawn up by Maria MARTENS (EPP-ED, NL) in response to the Commission Communication entitled "One year after Lisbon: The Africa-EU partnership at work".
Setting up of EU-Africa architecture: the committee welcomes the fact that, one year after the adoption of the Joint Strategy, the main components of the institutional architecture for its implementation are finally in place and have started to function, underpinned by an Action Plan with deliverables and timetables, and that some progress has been made towards implementation of the Joint Strategy and its thematic partnerships. However, it regrets that some partnerships are still in the process of defining working methods and have not yet established timetables and budget allocations. It calls for the completion of this institutional architecture by developing the parliamentary, civil society and local authority components that should drive the process by giving it transparency, ownership and democratic legitimacy.
Role of parliaments: they reiterate their request to the EU and AU Commissions to take active steps to involve the European and Pan-African Parliaments in implementing, monitoring and providing political guidance for the Joint Strategy. The report proposes that the Presidents of the Pan-African Parliament and the European Parliament address EU-Africa Summits to present Parliaments’ conclusions on the implementation of the Action Plan and suggestions for the future orientations of the Joint Strategy. Whist welcoming the EUR 55 million support programme in the 9th European Development Fund (EDF), the committee insists that part of this budget must be made available for strengthening the administrative and operational capacity of the Pan-African Parliament.
Civil society and non-state actors: whereas the Action Plan indicates that each of the Africa-EU Partnerships is open for a wide range of actions, Members regret that overwhelming emphasis is placed on state actions. The committee is concerned at the low level of involvement of African civil society in the implementation of the Joint Strategy.
Partnerships: the committee notes that the Joint Strategy should also address issues which, although formally belonging to a different institutional architecture, have a profound influence on the future of Africa, such as the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) and the relationship between the EPA regional groupings and other existing regional groupings in Africa (including the Regional Economic Communities), the second revision of the Cotonou Agreement, the Euro-Mediterranean Strategy, the EU-South Africa Strategic Partnership, and Africa’s relationship with new global players such as China and Brazil.
Peace and security: Members call for due priority to be assigned to implementing the African peace and security architecture, stressing that the EDF is not an adequate financing source for future replenishment of the African Peace Facility. EDF spending should comply with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC) criteria for official development assistance. Members reiterate their call for a definitive solution for African Peace Facility financing.
Governance: the report expresses serious concern that the "governance profiles" developed by the Commission for each ACP country, which will guide programming for development assistance in relation to the EUR 2.7 billion additional funds under the 10th EDF, have been prepared without any participatory element. It notes that eligibility for additional funds of beneficiary countries has been judged according to a set of criteria only one of which is directly linked to the MDGs, and calls on the European Commission to report on the implementation of these funds in order to make sure they are allocated to governance initiatives to support the AU governance agenda and the APRM process.
Trade: Members insist that the final EPAs signed with African states must be primarily tools for development which respect the various beneficiaries' different capacities and levels of development. They also insist that the Commission and Member States honour their commitment to provide by 2010 at least EUR 2 billion a year in genuine 'aid for trade', the largest share of which must be for Africa. These funds should be additional resources and not be merely repackaging of EDF funding.
Other issues: as regards the partnership on the MDGs, the report notes that even with more aid it will be difficult to meet these goals. It urges Member States to uphold recent commitments particularly as regards the volume of their aid, policy coherence, ownership, transparency and division of labour between donors.
The committee insists that fresh funds are necessary if African states are to avoid being forced to pay a disproportionate price for adaptation to the effects of climate change. It notes the need for a fair solution to the 'brain drain', and calls for help for African countries to apply the flexibilities provided for in the Doha Declaration on TRIPS, in order to facilitate access to affordable essential medicines in Africa.
Lastly, the committee calls once again on the EU institutions to create a specific financial instrument for implementing the Joint Strategy, centralising all existing sources of funding, in a clear and programmable way. It questions to what extent the Joint Strategy will be able to achieve its lofty ambitions or offer genuine added value without any new funding whatsoever or even reprogramming of existing funding.