In May 1999 the Development Council considered the results of a number of detailed independent evaluations of European Community development assistance. On the policy side, the evaluations identified the absence of an integrated up-to-date statement on overall EU development policy as contributing to a lack of coherence in the delivery of EU aid. The Council called on the Commission to prepare a draft policy statement on EC development aid to be presented to the Council in 2000.
In May 2000, the Commission published a communication on EC development aid policy which was discussed by the Council at its meeting on 18 May. The draft policy statement set out in the communication seeks to strengthen the poverty focus of all Community aid programmes. It also proposes streamlining the programme by focusing it on areas where action by the Community has a clear comparative advantage.
The communication also highlights the need for greater coherence between the Community's aid programme and other external policies such as in the trade area. The Commission announced that it will soon present an action plan dealing with coherence. It is also strengthening its internal procedures to ensure greater coherence in policy making.
On the management side, the external evaluations were very critical of the Commission's performance. In response to this external criticism the Commission has accepted that "EC external assistance programmes have a reputation for slow and unresponsive delivery, poor quality and excessively centralised and rigid procedures". The most visible expression of this inefficiency is in the huge backlog, now estimated at 20 billion euros, of aid funds that have been committed to aid programmes and projects but have yet to be disbursed. The average delay in disbursing committed funds has increased from three years to four and a half years during the past five years.
On 16 May the Commission published a communication on the reform of the management of external assistance. That communication, together with the communication on aid policy, laid the foundations for a much needed thorough reform of the Community's external assistance programme. The communication on reform of aid management sets out a radical programme for restructuring aid management. That includes a move to the multi-annual programming of aid, the strengthening of internal evaluation mechanisms, the location of all phases in the identification and implementation of an aid project within the one unit instead of being dispersed among numerous directorates and greater decentralisation of decision making to Commission offices in the field. The communication sets the objective of creating a new body for the delivery of EC aid which might even be established outside of the Commission.
While accepting much of the criticism leveled against the EC aid programme, the Commission also notes that some reform measures are outside its control. In particular, it points to the need for budgetary approval for additional staff to reflect the fact that the Commission has had to undertake significant new aid commitments, particularly in the Balkans. It also calls for less micro-management by the member states of aid projects through the proliferation of management committees that oversee Commission activities.
Ireland has been deeply concerned about the effectiveness of the Community aid programme. For some time we have been critical of the excessive internal bureaucracy that has caused significant delays in the delivery of aid, including urgently needed food aid. We have also called for a greater poverty focus in the delivery of aid and for more EC aid to be spent in the least developed countries.
As the world's fifth largest aid donor and the world's largest donor of emergency humanitarian aid, the Community is a crucial partner for developing countries. There is room for significant improvement in the implementation of this huge and complex aid programme. I welcome these two important recent Commission communications which represent a comprehensive attempt by the Commission to rectify serious policy and management weaknesses. Ireland will press for the speedy implementation of the Commission's management reform programme and for the early adoption by the Council of an overall EU policy on development assistance.