The European Parliament adopted by 639 votes to 27, with 24 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Instrument establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation (DCI II).
Parliament adopted its position at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure. The amendments adopted in plenary are the result of a compromise negotiated between the European Parliament and the Council :
General objective: the objective of the DCI II should be to finance:
(a) Geographic programmes aimed at supporting development cooperation with developing countries that are included in the list of recipients of Official Development Assistance (ODA) of the OECD/DAC, except:
(b) Thematic programmes to address development-related global public goods and challenges and support civil society organisations and local authorities in partner countries covered by this draft Regulation.
(c) A Pan-African programme to support the strategic partnership between the Union and Africa.
Principles and objectives: the primary objective of cooperation under this Regulation shall be the eradication of poverty as well as (i) fostering sustainable economic, social and environmental development, and (ii) consolidating and supporting democracy, the rule of law, good governance, human rights.
Cooperation under this Regulation should contribute to the achievement of the international commitments and objectives in the field of development that the Union has agreed to, in particular the MDGs, and post-2015 new development targets.
Specific measures have been introduced to ensure that Union assistance:
Incentive measures and performance indicators: progress in these areas would be assessed through performance indicators defined in the draft Regulation. It is also specified that assistance should be managed with a strong focus on the differentiation of assistance in terms of the needs of the target partner countries and criteria such as population, income per capita, the extent of poverty, income distribution and the level of human development, as well as their capacities to generate and access financial resources and absorption capacities or the potential impact of EU development aid.
Cross-cutting issues: a certain number of cross-cutting issues need to be taken into account in the implementation of programmes. These include:
In this context, specific attention should be paid to issues such as non-discrimination, the rights of persons belonging to minorities, the rights of persons with disabilities, the rights of persons with life-threatening diseases and other vulnerable groups, core labour rights and social inclusion, the empowerment of women, etc….
Other relevant principles that need to be integrated in the actions to be implemented: strengthening of budgetary policy, the creation of synergies with other donors, results-based approaches to development, strengthening of South-South cooperation,…
N.B. it is specifically stipulated that Union assistance under this Regulation shall not be used to finance the procurement of arms or ammunition, or operations having military or defence purposes.
Involvement of civil society: the objectives of this Regulation should be pursued with an appropriate involvement of NGOs and civil society organisations, in preparing, implementing and monitoring Union support.
Implementation: provisions have been included to clarify the technical implementation of the DCI II in terms of its strategic planning and programming.
The draft Regulation outlined the objectives and principles for the allocation of funds to:
Provisions have also been included for countries in crisis or in a post-conflict situation.
The Commission should inform the European Parliament on a regular basis by means of exchanges of views on all questions relating to development cooperation.
Financial envelope: in accordance with the agreement on the Financial Framework, the financial envelope for the implementation of the DCI II Regulation is set at EUR 19 662 million.
An indicative breakdown of expenditure by types of programmes and activities is listed in the Annex to the future Regulation (including specific funding to finance the ERASMUS+ programme in the countries covered by the DCI II).
Optimising resources: the EU should seek the most efficient use of available resources in order to optimise the impact of its external action. This should be achieved through coherence and complementarity between Union's Instruments for external action, as well as the creation of synergies between the Union's external financial Instruments and other policies of the Union.
Participation of third countries in the DCI: provisions have been added to clarify the scope of the cooperation of third countries to the DCI, provided that such cooperation is exceptional and is consistent with the standards applied in the context of the European development policy.
Provisions also formalise the cooperation arrangements with other international donors.
Delegated acts: in order to adapt European assistance to take account of changing needs, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 on the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of adapting and updating the:
Following the publication of the Mid-term report and based upon the recommendations contained in the mid-term review report, the Commission shall adopt a delegated act by 31 March 2018.
Annexes: the future Regulation should comprise of the following Annexes:
- Geographical programmes: EUR 11 809 million broken down as follows:
· Latin America : EUR 2 500 million
· South Asia : EUR 3 813 million
· North and South East Asia : EUR 2 870 million
· Central Asia : EUR 1 072 million
· Middle East : EUR 545 million
· Other countries : EUR 251 million.
- Thematic programmes: EUR 7 008 million of which:
· Global public goods: EUR 5 100 million
· Support for civil society : EUR 1 907 million.
- Pan African programme : EUR 845 million.
It should be noted that the amended draft Regulation is accompanied by a series of joint, bilateral or unilateral statements from the EU institutions including: