"European Union (EU) Aid" refers to assistance that is channelled through and managed by the European Commission, and which does not include the 27 EU Member States' bilateral aid. Taken alone, the European Union ranks as the world's second largest aid donor, accounting for 11% of global ODA. This equals net disbursements of €11.8 billion ($15 billion) in 2009.

EU aid is derived from two distinct financial sources:

• The annual EU budget. The legal basis for the development co-operation budget is Article 208 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union of the Lisbon Treaty.
• The European Development Fund (EDF). Its legal basis is the revised Cotonou agreement. The EDF supports African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, while the EU budget provides for co-operation with developing countries in all geographic regions.

Development and external assistance are central policies of the European Union. According to Article 208 Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU’s development policy “shall have as its primary objective the reduction and, in the long term, the eradication of poverty.”The EU’s key development policy document is the European Consensus on Development adopted in December 2005. It sets out common objectives and principles for development co-operation reaffirming the EU’s commitment to poverty eradication, ownership, partnership, delivering more and better aid, and promoting policy coherence for development. It will guide the European Union’s development co-operation with all developing countries for the coming years.The Declaration is divided into two parts:Part I sets out the EU’s common vision of development, the primary objective being the eradication of poverty, considered in its multidimensional aspects and in the context of sustainable development, in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Human rights and good governance are other important objectives. It also stresses shared principles and sets goals in order to deliver “more and better aid”.Part II sets out the policy guiding the implementation of this vision at the EU level. In each recipient country the EU will target its assistance in a limited number of priority areas of action from the following list:

•  Trade and regional integration
• The environment and the sustainable management of natural resources
• Infrastructure, communications and transport
• Water and energy
• Rural development, territorial planning, agriculture and food security
• Governance, democracy, Human Rights and support for economic and institutional reform
• Conflict prevention and fragile states
• Human development
• Social cohesion and employment.

In all its activities, the EU will apply a strengthened approach to mainstreaming the following crosscutting issues:

• Democracy, good governance, Human Rights, the rights of children and indigenous peoples
• Gender equality
• Environmental sustainability
• The fight against HIV/AIDS 

The responsibilities of the directorates involved in EU development aid¹ are divided as follows:

The Directorate General for Development (DG DEV) works on policy formulation and programming for the Community relations with Sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Most of those countries are signatories of the Lomé Convention, which has been replaced by the Cotonou Agreement signed in June 2000. Substantial financial resources have been committed to the co-operation with the ACP group. The 10th EDF is worth €22.7 billion for 2008-2013. 

The Directorate-General for External Relations (RELEX) contributes to the formulation of a range of external relations policies, including those in common foreign policy and security, development, trade and enlargement. It is responsible for the administration of the EU’s 136 overseas delegations. RELEX is operationally responsible for some 55 development programmes in Asia, Central Asia, Latin America, Middle East, European Neighbourhood Partners and in South Africa. These country programmes are funded by the Community budget under the so-called Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI), worth €16,9 billion Euro.

While 2/3 of this money goes to country programmes, around 1/3 is allocated to so-called “thematic programmes” like “Investing in People” or the “Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development” programme. The thematic programmes are open for all developing countries, including ACP states. The implementation of programs funded under the budget rests, however, with DG EuropeAid. 

Directorate General for Enlargement is responsible for relations and official assistance to EU candidate countries (FYRO Macedonia, Croatia, Turkey) and potential candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montegro, Serbia (incl. Kosovo). 

The EuropeAid Co-operation Office (EuropeAid) is the centre of management expertise for all Community development co-operation (excluding humanitarian assistance). It implements the external aid instruments, whether funded by the budget – the DCI - or the EDF. EuropeAid is responsible for all phases of the project cycle (design, financing decisions, implementation, monitoring and evaluation). It ensures that Community aid is implemented effectively, maintains quality standards and is responsible for promoting sound financial and contract management.

When implementing projects, EuropeAid takes account of EU strategies and long-term programmes for the delivery of aid previously designed by DEV and RELEX. Thus, EuropeAid is responsible for translating policies into practical actions and for developing new ways of delivering aid, such as budget support and through sectoral approaches. It also issues guidelines and makes evaluations of aid implementation. EuropeAid is a highly decentralised organisation. Two out of three Commission staff members working on aid implementation are based in the field. That is why most of the preparatory and implementation work is done through the EU delegations in the recipient countries.

The Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) provides specialised emergency assistance and relief to the victims of natural disasters or armed conflict outside the European Union. Its goods and services reach disaster areas via some 200 partners (e.g. European NGOs, the Red Cross and UN agencies). It has its own field offices outside of the Delegation structures. 

A key component of the reform process of EU development cooperation has been the devolution of management responsibility to the field delegations. Devolution began 2000 guided by the statement that “Anything that can be better managed and decided on the spot, close to what is happening on the ground, should not be managed and decided in Brussels.” At the level of procedures, financing decisions and global commitments are the responsibility of Brussels, while individual commitments, tendering, contracting and payments are made by the delegations. At the level of content, delegations identify activities, assess feasibility, implement and evaluate them, while Brussels is responsible for programming and for general, thematic and quality support. In 2005 EuropeAid estimated that more than 80% of geographic funds and 66% of thematic funds were managed primarily by the delegations.

A list of EU delegations web pages is available at ec.europa.eu/external_relations/delegations/web_en.htm

The External Service Directory is a database of delegation addresses. It is available at ec.europa.eu/comm/external_relations/repdel/index_rep_en.cfm.

 

European Development Fund (EDF)
The EDF is a financial resource from the European Community for development co-operation with 79 ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries. It is constituted by contributions from EU Member States and managed by the Commission. It is not part of the EU budget and has specific procedures. €22.7 billion have been allocated to the EDF for the period from 2008-2013.

Development Co-operation Instrument (DCI)
Through the DCI, the European Union pursues a development co-operation policy aimed at achieving the objectives of poverty reduction, sustainable development and the smooth and gradual integration of developing countries into the world economy. For the period from 2007 to 2013, €16. 9 billion have been allocated to the DCI. The DCI comprehends geographic programmes targeting the countries and regions of Latin America, Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and South Africa (€10.05 billion). Further, the DCI includes thematic programmes covering all countries eligible for the geographic programmes of the DCI, EDF and ENPI (€5.9 billion).

European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI).
The ENPI provides Community assistance for the development of an area of prosperity and good neighbour relations targeting Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Russian Federation, Syria, Tunisia, and Ukraine. For the period from 2007-2013, €11.2 billion have been allocated to the ENPI. The ENPI is divided into country and multi-country programmes (€10.62 billion) and cross-border co-operation programmes (€0.560 billion).

European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
The EIDHR is a financing instrument for the promotion of democracy and human rights worldwide allowing for assistance independent from the consent of third country governments and other public authorities.  €1.04 billion have been allocated to the EIDHR for the period from 2007 to 2013.

Humanitarian Aid Instrument
The humanitarian aid instrument comprises assistance, relief and protection operations to help people in developing countries and as a priority those in developing countries, victims of natural disasters, man-made crises, such as wars and outbreaks of fighting, or exceptional situations or circumstances comparable to natural or man-made disasters.

EU policy texts are strong on SRH and population issues. The EU’s objectives described in the European Consensus on Development refer to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) recognizing the multi-dimensional problem of poverty including the role of health. In addition, HIV/AIDS and SRH together with the ICPD agenda receive a high attention and are explicitly addressed. The legal basis for all EU aid on sexual and reproductive health was established in 2003 under EC regulation 1567/2003.

EU geographic support to developing countries for sexual and reproductive health issues is mainly channelled through bilateral aid (sector budget support or budget support) for locally-owned projects and programmes and is negotiated with national governments and incorporated into country strategy papers. Currently, 33 EU partner countries worldwide have included health as a priority sector in their multi-annual country strategy papers for 2007-2013 (DCI) or 2008-2013 (EDF). For a complete list of relevant information on EU priorities per partner country, please see: ec.europa.eu/external_relations/countries/index_en.htm

The health section of the EU thematic programme Investing in People under the DCI includes a funding envelope of €86 million (2007-2013) specifically dedicated to SRHR and the ICPD agenda. However, NGOs working in the field of sexual and reproductive health should also see how their projects could fit into other thematic programmes of the DCI, such as the Non-State Actors programme, or the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR).

In the European consensus for development and its development agreements with individual countries and groups of countries, e.g. the Cotonou agreement, the EU has repeatedly committed itself to strengthen the role of civil society in developing countries. The geographic aid programmes, i.e. the National Indicative Programmes that are simultaneously negotiated with a partner country’s strategy paper, represent the main source of EU funding for NGOs, next to the thematic programmes lists above.

At the same time however, EU aid policies are shifting towards a new assistance paradigm with the objective of giving more responsibility to partner countries: More and more development assistance is devoted to sector-wide approaches and budget support managed by the national governments. This means that proportionally fewer funds will directly be channelled to NGOs. Development assistance funds reaching NGOs increasingly will depend on the good will of national governments issuing calls for proposals open to NGOs.

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Cotonou Agreement (incl. revisions), Partnership Agreement between the members of the African , Caribbean and Pacific Group of States of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part.

Development Co-operation Instrument: Common Position (EC) No 28/2006 adopted by the Council on 23 October 2006 with a view to the adoption of Regulation (EC) No …/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of  establishing a financing instrument for development co-operation.

The European Consensus on Development (20 December 2005):
Joint statement by the Council and the representatives of the governments of the Member States meeting within the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission on European Union Development Policy. http://ec.europa.eu/development/icenter/repository/european_consensus_2005_en.pdf

Official Journal of the European Union, Regulation (EC) No 1567/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2003 on Aid for Policies and Actions on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights in Developing Countries.