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 On Monday 10 May, EU development ministers will meet for the first time with High Representative Catherine Ashton to discuss the ongoing negotiations on the establishment of the European External Action Service (EEAS). Ashton’s current proposals would transfer key competencies in EU development policy currently held by the Commission to the new service, which many in the development community fear will lead to the subordination of EU aid to foreign policy objectives.
“We welcome this first informal exchange between Development Ministers and Baroness Ashton,” said Simon Stocker, Director of Eurostep. “However, it’s a shame Development Ministers have been watching from the side-line for so long. A broader debate with specialists from the development sector is needed to assess this proposal and its impacts on development objectives.”
The European Parliament (EP), which holds co-decision powers over key aspects of the implementation of the EEAS, is maintaining a strong, critical stance on the proposals. The EP, led on this issue by joint rapporteurs Elmar Brok (EPP) and Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE), demands that the EEAS must be “attached to the Commission in administrative, organisational and budgetary terms.”
Brok and Verhofstadt reject the Council proposal that the EEAS be dealt with as an “institution” in the financial regulation and that a “specific section in the EU budget” be provided for it, instead proposing that the service be part of section III of the budget to ensure that Parliament’s rights on monitoring and discharge are fully respected.
Parliament has so far also pressed for the need to safeguard poverty eradication as the primary objective of development policy. “We welcome this position, and hope the EP won’t use development cooperation as a bargaining chip to affirm its influence on the EEAS set-up,” said Bernd Nilles, Secretary-General of the international alliance of Catholic development agencies CIDSE.
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