The European Parliament adopted a resolution on local authorities and civil society: Europes engagement in support of sustainable development.
The resolution welcomed the recent policy developments at EU and international level which are focused on a more ambitious partnership with civil society organisations (CSOs) and local authorities (LAs), founded on a human rights based approach to development, including economic and social and on the clear commitment to strengthening the democratic process and accountability.
Creating an enabling environment for CSOs and LAs: Members considered that democratic ownership includes not only governments but also CSOs, LAs and national parliaments, which play crucial roles in linking citizens with government and in ensuring broad-based and democratic ownership of countries development agendas.
The Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) are invited to:
The resolution encouraged the EU to promote institutionalised mechanisms for multilevel and multiple stakeholder dialogue and recommended that for each partner country the EU applies the provisions on consultations with LAs provided for in the Cotonou Agreement for ACP states.
Development effectiveness: Parliament called on the Commission and the EEAS to:
The Union is invited to make efficient use of knowledge-sharing and capacity-development methods and adopt a scaled-up agenda with a view to achieving a proportional increase in the effective experiences of projects and initiatives of both CSOs and Las financed by the EU.
Decentralisation and territorial approach to development (TAD): Parliament called on the Commission and the EEAS to establish a more ambitious policy dialogue with and within partner countries to promote TAD and a comprehensive approach to decentralisation. It stressed the importance of strengthening EU staff expertise and commitment, in particular at delegation level on decentralisation and on the role of CSOs and LAs in sustainable development.
Fragile States: Parliament recalled that resilience should also be a key theme of the EUs partnerships with CSOs and LAs. It called on the Commission and the EEAS to establish guidelines for EU delegations on how to deal with CSOs and LAs in situations of crisis and fragility, using a human rights-based and gender-sensitive approach.
Moreover, it expressed deep concern at the Commission's proposal to limit financial support in service delivery only to CSOs working in LDCs and fragile states.
Education: recalling Parliaments written declaration on development education and active global citizenship, Parliament called on the Commission to:
Programming documents and aid modalities: the resolution welcomed the Commission's engagement to systematically introduce political economy analysis at country level and recommended that this should include an analysis of the political and legal situation of CSOs and LAs.
The Commission is invited to:
Lastly, Parliament called on the Commission to promote the participation of CSOs and LAs in the ongoing discussion on blending mechanisms in the framework of the EU Platform for Blending in External Cooperation.