Vol. 525 No. 2
266 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the total amount of EU development aid which has been unspent over the past ten years; and his views on this in the context of the hunger and poverty of so many in the Third World. [24566/00]
I share the concern expressed by the Deputy in relation to the disbursement of EU development assistance. Recent evaluations of the EU programmes have uncovered serious flaws in the implementation of EU development aid. These are most starkly evident in the huge unspent balances, now almost 20 billion euros, which have accumulated over the last decade. Ireland has been very supportive of initiatives aimed at reforming policy structures and the management and implementation of the EU's development assistance programme and sees this as the best way to support the change necessary to address the problem of unspent balances.
The issue of unspent balances is one of the reasons why Ireland, together with a number of other like-minded member states, has been pressing for early action by the Commission to improve the effectiveness of the EU's aid programme. In addition to finding problems in the implementation of development assistance, the recent independent evaluations of the effectiveness of EU aid concluded that the programme suffered from a lack of any clear over-arching statement of EU development aid policy. This lack of clarity is found to have led to fragmentation and inconsistency in the implementation of aid. The EU aid programme is also characterised by excessive internal bureaucracy resulting in lengthy delays in decision making. The administrative structures in the EU, whereby responsibility for the management of the aid programme is divided between three Commissioners has resulted in overlap and internal co-ordination difficulties.
Ireland supported the Development Council's decision in May to issue a Council policy declaration which will provide a coherent policy basis for EC aid. The statement, which is based on a Commission communication – EC Development Policy – issued in May, is expected to be adopted by the Council very shortly. The policy statement will make poverty alleviation the focus of all EU aid programmes and it will also propose streamlining the programme and focusing EU aid in areas where action at EU level has a comparative advantage.
The Commission has responded to the need to address institutional weaknesses with a detailed communication on the Reform of the Management of External Assistance which is a key part of the overall Commission reform exercise initiated by Commission President Prodi. The communication quite frankly admits to the current weaknesses and sets out ambitious proposals for the reform of EU aid. The proposal contains measures designed to reduce bureaucracy, decentralise decision making and for the allocation of additional staff to deal with the backlog of unspent balances. The efficiency and coherence of the EU development aid is also likely to be improved as a result of the decision to locate responsibility for the identification and implementation of all aid programmes in a single Commission office.
In addition, the Commission's proposals for a major reform of the financial regulation which governs the management of the EU budget should permit greater flexibility in the allocation of funds. These actions are designed to prevent the build up of unspent allocations in the aid budget in the future.
