Communication: Annual accounts of the European Development Fund 2016

The European Union (EU) has cooperative relations with a large number of developing countries. The main objective is to promote economic, social and environmental development, with the primary aim of reducing and eradicating poverty in the long-term, by providing beneficiary countries with development aid and technical assistance. To achieve this, the EU draws up, jointly with the partner countries, cooperation strategies and mobilises the financial resources to implement them. These EU resources allocated to development cooperation come from three sources:
- The EU budget;
- The European Development Fund;
- The European Investment Bank.

The European Development Fund (EDF) is the main instrument for providing EU aid for development cooperation to the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States and Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs). The EDF is not funded by the EU budget. It is established by an internal agreement of the Representatives of the Member States, sitting within the Council, and managed by a specific committee. The European Commission is responsible for the financial implementation of the operations carried out with EDF resources.

During the period 2014-2020, the geographic aid granted to ACP States and OCTs will continue to be mainly funded by the EDF. Each EDF is usually concluded for a period of around five years and is governed by its own Financial Regulation which requires the preparation of financial statements for each individual EDF. Accordingly, financial statements are prepared separately for each EDF in respect of the part that is managed by the Commission. These financial statements are also presented in an aggregated way so as to provide a global view of the financial situation of the resources for which the Commission is responsible.