Pinheiro seeks to reinvigorate EU aid policies

Date: 30/05/1996

By Shada Islam

NEW evidence of a continuing decline in public support for Third World aid programmes is forcing a radical rethink of the EU's long-standing development methods and policies.

Breaking with past practice, Commission officials are seeking greater public involvement in their discussions on EU aid. The focus is shifting from internal policy debates to giving European non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academics, trade unions and independent experts a greater say in setting the Union's new development agenda.

External Relations Commissioner João de Deus Pinheiro will kick-start the EU's first-ever public debate on the future of Union development policy this autumn with the publication of a Green Paper on relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Other plans to inject new momentum into the flagging development sector include the organisation of a Euro-African summit, possibly in 1998, and efforts to make the EU more active in building peace and preventing conflicts.

“We have started a process of enlarged consultation aimed at a global review of our development policy beyond the year 2000,” said Pinheiro recently. “I want as large a debate as possible. We have to revitalise our policy and public interest in it.”

It will not be an easy task. A Eurobarometer poll of public attitudes towards developing countries published last week shows a persistent decline in European public support for development aid. “Helping people in poor countries in Asia, Africa and South America” is now eighth on a list of ten public priorities identified by the poll, far below the two top concerns: the “fight against unemployment” and “protecting nature”.

In 1991, 81&percent; of all people questioned believed development aid was important. But support for Third World issues slipped by four points last year.

“The survey shows that people are withdrawing into themselves. Development aid is no longer fashionable,” said Pinheiro. “This is regrettable and dangerous.”

The poll also highlighted the Union's lack of 'visibility' as a major international aid donor. Asked to identify the world's leading sources of development funding, most people mentioned either the United Nations agencies, the World Bank or voluntary aid organisations.

This is particularly galling for EU aid officials, who insist that most of the aid organisations that people did recognise actually use Union funds for their Third World operations.

“There's clearly a problem of comprehension of the Union aid effort,” admitted Pinheiro.

The Commission and others are hoping to reignite public interest in developing countries by launching an unprecedented 'people-driven' debate on the future of the Lomé Convention, the EU's trade and aid accord with 70 ACP states which is set to expire in 2000.

Union officials hope that the Commission's Green Paper on ACP relations will act as a catalyst in triggering an EU-wide awareness of development problems.

“It will be an open document, with no taboos,” Pinheiro has promised. ACP countries will also be consulted on their needs and priorities beyond 2000.

The focus inevitably will be on more efficient aid distribution methods, a better utilisation of European aid, and on programmes to promote human rights and democracy.

“The key will be ensuring that our aid is effective,” insists a Union official. “This is important because we need to improve the image of EU development policy or support for this sector will slip even further.”

Efforts will also be made to convince the Union's 15 member states to run complementary rather than competing aid programmes. Meanwhile, current across-the-board aid projects, including the Lomé Convention, will be turned into more 'selective' schemes which reflect the requirements of smaller groups of countries.

There are also suggestions that the EU should focus future efforts on combating corruption in Third World countries.

“Human rights clauses which are now routinely included in cooperation agreements with third countries must also include a reference to good governance,” says Dieter Frisch, a former director-general of DGVIII (responsible for development) and current vice-chairman of Transparency International, an independent agency working for ethics in business.

By good governance, Frisch says he means the “transparent and responsible management of public funds and the independence of prosecutors and judges” to enhance the fight against corruption.

Others have suggested more publicity-generating moves such as a Euro-Africa summit to highlight renewed EU commitment to the region.

Such a meeting, following along the lines of recent Union encounters with Asian, Latin American and Mediterranean leaders, will offer much-needed support to Europe's flagging relations with Africa, according to Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama, who called for the summit earlier this year.

Also looking ahead, the Commission has said the EU should play a more active role in trying to prevent bloody internal conflicts in African countries. Pumping funds into new roads, schools and hospitals is of little use if they are destroyed by warring groups, say Union officials.

“We should try to get at the root causes of conflict - social, ethnic, political tensions and economic equalities,” Pinheiro has said.

NGOs have promised to become enthusiastic participants in the future debate.

“We have to maintain a spirit of partnership with developing countries,” stresses Agostinho Jardim Goncalves, head of the NGO-EU liaison committee.

At their annual meeting in Brussels in April, Europe's top NGOs urged Intergovernmental Conference negotiators to pay attention to development issues and to show “solidarity with people inside and outside Europe, applying common values to our internal and external policies”.