Development Cooperation is a significant part of the European Union’s external operations. Th e EC and the EU member countries fund over half of the world’s development aid and together are the biggest aid donor in the world. The EU’s development cooperation falls under the shared jurisdiction sectors, which means that both the organisation and its member nations have their own development cooperation. The European Commission administers the organisation’s development cooperation, and approximately one fifth of Finland’s development aid goes into this purpose.
Finland’s general EU policy also provides the points of departure for Finland’s influence in EU development cooperation and policy. In the Union, there are many different decision making levels concerning development policy and other sectors, and influencing takes place at all of these levels and through networking with other actors. Influencing is concentrated on strategically important issues being discussed by the council. Delegations have a significant role at influencing in the field.
The development policy programme creates the framework for Finland’s operations in the EU. Finland’s aim is to improve the quality of community aid, securing its arrival at the destination more eff ectively, and ensuring that aid is channelled into poverty reduction and, first and foremost, to the least developed and poorest countries. Finland has actively sought to promote the harmonisation and complementarity of community aid and the bilateral aid of member countries. Finland has emphasised that the Union should highlight development policy as part of its external relations, and commit to the consistent promotion of development goals in all political sectors. In addition, Finland EU development policy and development cooperation has emphasised that the EU should strengthen the internal consistency of international cooperation through its operations.
The EU accepted the new development policy declaration in November 2005. The declaration defines the Union’s development policy strategy, which also has a clear link with development financing and its methods. Unlike the declaration given in 2002, which only related to the EU’s operations, the new declaration is divided into two different sections. Th e first section applies to the EU’s development policy and is based on the member countries’ and the commission’s existing international commitments, especially those related to the fulfilment of the millennium goals. The second section applies to the implementation and points of focus of the community’s aid. Finland has supported the incorporation of both sections related to the EU and the community into the declaration. During the preparation of the declaration, Finland emphasised the need to concentrate on the reduction of poverty, development policy consistency and the effectiveness of aid.
In 2005, the European Commission published the 2007–2011 operational programme for the prevention of HIV/aids, malaria and tuberculosis in its bulletin. Th e General Aff airs and External Relations Council (GAERC) accepted the bulletin’s conclusions in May. The document in question is the fi rst EU joint operational programme for the prevention of poverty related diseases. According to the strategy, the EU will allocate fi nancing and will act both through countries and worldwide, emphasising the countries’ ownership and an increase in dialogue. Cooperation with other donors, civil society, and with the public and private sectors is important. During the operational strategy’s preparation, Finland emphasised the support of preventive and basic healthcare, along with pharmaceutical policy. Finland stressed that women’s rights and sexual and reproductive health programmes (such as the Cairo operational programme) and rights, be given the importance they deserve.
The EU’s cooperation with the African, Caribbean and the Pacific states (ACP) is based on the Cotonou agreement signed in 2000. The ACP cooperation has traditionally been an important part of the community’s development policy, but through the Cotonou partnership agreement, it has become part of much wider political and economic relations. The Cotonou agreement is both a development policy instrument and part of the EU’s external relations.
The Cotonou agreement was concluded for a 20-year period and is revised every fi ve years in accordance with the 95th clause. The first interim revision ended in 2005, and the revised agreement was signed in June in the agreement’s higher joint decision-making body, the EU-ACP Council of Ministers. The revision did not change the agreement’s goals, but rather aimed to improve the agreement’s application and upgrade the changes, which have taken place in the last five years.
The Commission continued the economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations related to the Cotonou agreement based on the negotiations mandate received from the Council in 2002. Th e economic partnership agreements are to be concluded with six different regional negotiation groups by the end of 2008. Finland emphasises achieving negotiation results that positively promote the economic and social development of the ACP states.
Finland’s aim during her EU presidency is to promote the consistency of external relations both in the EU’s internal decision making and in the Union’s activities within international organisations (Bretton Woods, YK, WTO, OECD). The implementation and follow-up of the development policy declaration and the commitments made within the sphere of development policy will fall within Finland’s chairmanship period. The most important are the millennium goals and the commitments made during the UN 2005 summit, the Monterrey development financing conference and the Paris harmonisation conference. As far as the consistency in trade and development is concerned, it will also be essential to follow the EPA negotiations related to the Cotonou agreement.
