Nielson aims to make EU aid policy more ‘coherent’

Date: 27/01/2000

By Gareth Harding

Development Commissioner Poul Nielson will next week present MEPs with a raft of proposals aimed at bringing the EU's much-criticised trade and agricultural policies into line with its goals for tackling third-world poverty.

Development groups have long accused the Union of giving with one hand what it takes with the other and EU governments joined the attack in 1997 by calling on the Commission to ensure a more coherent approach.

A paper drawn up by the Commission's development directorate-general admits that EU development policy "may indeed be affected or even contradicted by the effects of virtually all other Community policies".

It argues that the Union's strict interpretation of World Trade Organisation rules is "difficult to reconcile" with its goal of poverty eradication, highlights recent cuts in the Union's budget for third-world states, says farm subsidies depress world-market prices, and argues that arms exports rules are too lax to prevent weapon sales to brutal regimes.

The paper claims that "a certain level of incoherence is unavoidable" and blames governments for some of the most glaring inconsistencies, saying that "more often than not" this reflects contradictions in member states' positions.

Nielson will nevertheless outline a number of proposals to tackle the problem, including creating a cross-departmental group to check planned initiatives for possible contradictions with EU development policy, joint monitoring mechanisms with developing countries to identify possible inconsistencies and a 'coherence focal point' within the Commission's development depart-ment to monitor the effects of Union laws on poor countries.

Development Commissioner Poul Nielson is to present MEPs with a raft of proposals aimed at bringing the EU's much-criticised trade and agricultural policies into line with its goals for tackling third-world poverty.