The Geographic Scope of EC Aid: One or Several Development Policies?
The European Union (EU) and its Member States account for more than 50 % of total Official Development Aid (ODA), of which 15% is managed by the European Commission out of the European Community (EC) budget and from the European Development Fund (EDF) - which finances the Lomé Convention. This relatively high profile of the EC in development assistance developed in a very ad hoc manner over the past thirty years, from the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) with the Rome Treaty, to that of the European Union, with the Maastricht Treaty. Since the late 1950s, European relations with developing countries have been subject to two opposite pressures: regionalism and globalisation. The compromise between those two views upheld by France and Germany gradually emerged: the EC would have a world-wide policy organised around regional programmes which would be given a differentiated weighting. This geographical division is reflected in the budget allocations as well as the working modalities of the institutions which formulate and implement EU development policy (the European Commission and the Council of Ministers). The co-existence of separate geographical programmes corresponding to different intensities in relations with beneficiary countries favours discrepancies between Community actions overseas. This state of affairs was further favoured by the absence of a legal basis for EC development cooperation in the Rome Treaty. The Maastricht Treaty rationalises this situation by giving the EC a clear mandate to conduct a development policy. This, however, does not mean the end of the geographical division of EC relations with developing countries. The differentiated weight given to developing countries in EC external policies reflects the political priorities of the EC and its Member States and is translated into both development and trade policies. Whereas the original pyramid of privileges had the ACP countries on top, followed by the Mediterranean and Asian and Latin American countries far below, priorities have shifted over the years, as a result of the erosion of the position of the ACP group, of the increased politicisation of the EU and, last but not least, by the new commitment of the EC in Eastern and Central Europe. [author]
