Press Release: Commission sets out political guidelines for the future of EC development policy

The European Commission approved on 26.4.00 a policy document that sets out the parameters for a new European Community Development Policy. The new policy document firmly places poverty eradication as the central focus of the Community's development policy efforts. Member States and built on three pillars:
1. development cooperation and financial aid targeted on assistance that directly benefits the poor
2. intensified political dialogue
3. trade and economic cooperation designed to facilitate the smooth and gradual integration of developing countries in the global economy.
The Commission aims to concentrate on a number of core tasks, and therefore proposes to reduce the Community's development activities to those areas where the Community can offer comparative advantages, added value and contribute to the over-arching objective of poverty eradication. The paper identifies six such areas:
1. trade for development
2. regional integration and cooperation
3. macroeconomic policies linked with poverty reduction strategies, in particular the strengthening of social sectors like health and education
4. reliable and sustainable transport which plays a key role in access to basic social services
5. food security and sustainable rural development strategies
6. institutional capacity building, good governance and the rule of law.