Commission staff working document
PCD Promotion within the Commission
Download 0.93 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- 2.3.1.More effective use of impact assessments and inter-service consultations: PCD work plan
- 2.3.2.Revision of the IA guidelines
- 2.3.3.Institutional mechanisms: PCD unit and PCD inter-service group
- 2.3.4.Budgetary/financial issues/financing of non-development activities in developing countries
2.3.PCD Promotion within the CommissionThe Commission has gained a high profile for its work on PCD. The latest DAC Peer Review of EC aid14 recognises the substantial progress made by the Commission to putting in place effective mechanisms to ensure PCD. In the reporting period the Commission concentrated on implementing its legal and political framework, and on using its coordination and reporting mechanisms in a more effective, active and targeted way. The preparation of the 2007 PCD report was instrumental in raising awareness, enhancing understanding and increasing ownership of PCD in the Commission and the Member States. Its publication has been recognised by the Member States as a major achievement. However, the Netherlands found that drawing operational conclusions from the evidence provided was difficult and did not encounter sufficiently broad support from Member States and Commission. In 2008, the Commission took its PCD work further by sharpening, and making better use of Inter-service consultation (ISC) and Impact assessments (IA), both of which are powerful mechanisms to promote PCD. At international level, the Commission contributed to the OECD DAC Reflection Group on the revision of the DAC mandate, thus helping to make PCD a renewed priority for DAC in the future. 2.3.1.More effective use of impact assessments and inter-service consultations: PCD work planEvery year, the Commission adopts hundreds of new legislative proposals and policy initiatives, which undergo IA and ISC. In an effort to identify the initiatives which will affect developing countries, the Commission now regularly establishes an informal PCD workplan, which lists all those EU policy initiatives and legislative proposals that are likely to have significant impact on developing countries. In 2008, 26 initiatives were identified and 37 in 2009. This PCD planning list has been an important step forward. It allows the Commission to use the ISC and IA in a much more effective and strategic way and to concentrate its efforts on those initiatives with the biggest impact on developing countries. In addition, this exercise of jointly identifying the relevant initiatives with the responsible civil servants has proved to be a very useful process for enhancing ownership and increasing awareness of PCD issues. 2.3.2.Revision of the IA guidelinesThe Commission uses impact assessment to identify likely consequences of its policy initiatives or legislative proposals in the economic, environmental and social fields. The 2007 PCD report suggested using them to get a clearer idea of how developing countries may be affected. The Commission therefore took the opportunity to revise the IA guidelines to strengthen their external dimension and to sharpen them as a PCD instrument15. The revised IA guidelines applicable since January 2009, put the Commission in a better position to ensure Policy Coherence for Development, in so far as they call for a more in-depth analysis of possible the ways in which EU policy initiatives might affect developing countries. The guidelines state that 'initiatives that may affect developing countries should be analysed for their coherence with the objectives of EU development policy. This includes an analysis of consequences (or spill-overs) in the longer run in areas such as economic, environmental, social or security policy.' Such an analysis has to differentiate between countries at different stages of development. According to the new guidelines the impact on commitments arising from the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement must also be checked. The annexes to the guidelines include a specific section on assessing impacts on developing countries. In addition, specific guidance is given for identifying possible consequences on developing countries, including in the areas of employment, food security, and natural resources stocks. These changes by the Commission also responds to requests from the European Parliament and the Council to strengthen the external dimension of IA and to improve and make better use the IA process to evaluate the impact of EU policies on developing countries.
The inter-service group on PCD functions as a forum for exchange of views on PCD issues. Its members act as interpreters between the different policies. They make proposals and explain how development objectives can be taken into account in other policies. At the same time they give background on the policies of their DGs thereby promoting better mutual understanding and paving the way for sometimes new and innovative ways of enhancing synergies between policies. 2.3.4.Budgetary/financial issues/financing of non-development activities in developing countriesCooperation with developing countries is no longer limited to promoting their development. Mauritania and the Seychelles receive more funding under the Common Fisheries Policy than under the Development Fund (EDF). Some countries receive considerable funding from European Research programmes for research activities involving their universities and academics. Security, migration and climate change and environment in general are other areas where the EU increasingly cooperates with developing countries. Cooperation in these areas is mostly financed from non-development budget lines. While not primarily motivated by the will to support these countries in the fight against poverty, such cooperation also has the potential to contribute to development. To harness this potential it is important to ensure coherence at the policy level and to develop and strengthen mechanisms to ensure that coherence is also improved at the operational level. The financing instrument for development cooperation (DCI) is used partly to fund non-ODA activities such as some aspects of migration. However, in order to keep the thematic focus of the DCI on poverty reduction and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), while at the same time taking account of the growing need to finance non-ODA activities in developing countries, the Commission intends to finance non-ODA activities under the financial instrument for cooperation with industrialised countries, the ICI. To that end it has proposed an amendment in the framework of the Mid-Term Review of the external action instruments to extend the geographical coverage of the ICI to include developing countries.
Directory: pub -> ECD ECD -> Table of contents I instruments Error: Reference source not found ECD -> Table of annexes annex I: Glossary 4 ECD -> En commission of the european communities brussels, 12. 12. 2008 com(2008) 853 final annex annex II to VIII ECD -> Report from the commission to the european parliament and the council european community safa programme aggregated information report ECD -> Report from the commission european community safa programme ECD -> Commission staff working document ECD -> Commission of the european communities brussels, 24 2008 ECD -> Commission staff working document ECD -> Communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions ECD -> Annex I iccat species Download 0.93 Mb. Share with your friends:
|