European Development Policy: A Response to the Crisis Affecting Globalisation

European Development Policy: A Response to the Crisis Affecting Globalisation

In a previous essay published in 2006, we looked at Europe’s place in the world and concluded that we needed to create, step by step, a veritable European system of development cooperation. Two years later, the new issues surrounding development assistance, such as the growing place occupied by new players – namely emerging countries – and Europe’s recent progress towards more effective forms of cooperation, have prompted us to revisit the question. This essay is intended to provide a fresh overview of the goals and particularities of European development cooperation, looking at progress made in recent years, as well as the outlook for the future, against the backdrop of the crisis currently affecting globalisation.

 
At a time of international crises in areas as diverse as food, energy, climate and finance, developing countries need a firmly based partnership with Europe more than ever. And Europe, which is concerned about its future in a globalised world, more than ever needs partners that are developing. For Europe, growing partners are a critical part of the response to today’s challenges. It is more than ever vital for Europe to fully gauge the “sense of urgency”.
 
Periods of crisis are often apt to engender the very reforms necessary for their resolution. They can set off virtuous circles, by prompting economies to open up, or vicious circles, by turning them inward. Today’s financial crisis has caused Europe to look at its relations with the rest of the world, and specifically its closest neighbour. To deal with the various crises it is currently facing, Europe must, for the sake of its partners, chose virtue, by opening up and investing to the south and to the east of its borders.
 
The world’s biggest donor, the European Union – the Commission and the member states combined – provides nearly 60% of official development assistance in the world, the equivalent of 93 euros per European citizen in 2007. However, despite Europe’s financial clout, its development policies are facing a major strategic challenge. To have a voice in global debate, Europe must manage its regional interests closely: despite the extent of Europe’s development aid, the disparities in economic and human development within the various regions neighbouring the EU remain at intolerable levels.
 
Today’s challenge for Europe is to build a capacity for political and operational intervention consistent with its regional and global ambitions.
 
In this respect, 2009 is proving to be a critical year for Europe’s development policies: in the wake of the recent European elections, ahead of the appointment of a new Commission, and with the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty also pending, the time is right to give thought to this issue in order to foster the debate and to define a mandate for the Commission in terms of development.
 

Jean-Michel DEBRAT
Fondation pour l’innovation politique
June 2009 
 

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