The Europeanization of official development assistance: EU governance by cooperation – communication and domestic change

Abstract:

Development policy and official development assistance belong to domestic policies where Europeanization has appeared almost from the very beginning of the European integration process. However, the official development assistance (ODA) has been Europeanized in the cooperation - communication governance mode which is less intensively studied by scholars than other, more strict governance patterns.

Based on a three-dimensional governance Europeanization model, the paper hopes to capture the key trends in the evolution of the cooperation - communication governance mode within the area, as well as related changes in volumes, geographical assistance, and thematic focus of national ODA programmes. In doing so, it emphasizes the relationship between the form of the cooperation - communication mode (which is showed to change considerably over time) and the up-loading, cross-loading, and downloading of ODA patterns within the EU.