MACKIE James - The EU and International Development (25h)
The international development sector is entering a period of major change, starting with a 9% fall in official development assistance (ODA) in 2024 and, according to the OECD, another 23% less in 2025, with the five largest providers (USA, Germany, France, UK, Japan) responsible for 95% of this decline and the USA on its own for 75%. So far, the EU as a donor (with its multiannual budget) has maintained its level of ODA, but with negotiations for its next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2028-2034) in progress, reductions in EU ODA could also be on the cards for the years ahead. These major decreases in funding have further encouraged calls for the ‘decolonisation’ of development and a fundamental questioning of the international aid architecture and its underlying principles. Equally, aid providers are becoming more transactional in their approach seeking ‘partnerships’ that are mutually beneficial and seeing themselves more as ‘investors’ than as ‘donors’. This has also become the norm in the approach of the European Commission and its DG INTPA (International Partnerships) with its Global Gateway strategy.
In addition, there are only three years left till the deadline for reaching the agreed Sustainable Development Goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda, yet the UN's 2026 progress report suggested that only 36% of the targets were on track, 49% are moving too slowly, and 15% have actually regressed since 2015. Lack of resources is a major part of the problem. Global poverty levels, which had been falling for some 25 years, have, since the COVID-19 pandemic, started to rise again. The climate finance goal of USD 100 billion per annum from developed countries was finally reached in 2022, but this effort also needs to be maintained. The challenges for international development are thus as great as ever and with the pulling back by some states, the EU as a key player in the sector has a major responsibility to face up to them and work closely with other willing actors to find solutions.
The European Union as a bloc of 27 states is a major player in international development cooperation, mobilising around 50% of global ODA. From small beginnings as a side programme to ‘associate’ a group of overseas countries and territories to the new Community of the six signatories of the Treaty of Rome, European development cooperation evolved into an increasingly integrated assembly of bilateral and EU partnership programmes covering all regions of the developing world and with a particular focus on cooperation with Africa. With the growing scale and widening scope of this common effort has also come increased influence in the OECD Development Assistance Committee, the UN and other international development fora where the EU is a major driver of policy debate and reform.
During the current budget cycle (2021-2027), the EU introduced a number of institutional changes that have had a major impact on the way EU international cooperation is implemented. First, the new Samoa Agreement signed in late 2023 by the EU and its partners in ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries is substantially different from its predecessors. The expectation of a new departure that this creates is also reinforced by a second key change: the European Development Fund (EDF) which has provided the bulk of EU aid funds for over 60 years has ceased to exist. Instead, EU-ACP development cooperation is now funded from a single EU budget instrument: the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI). A third change is the refocusing of the mandate of the Commission service responsible for aid policy and management on ‘international partnerships’ as reflected in its new name: DG INTPA.
The EU’s record on international cooperation is solid, and going forward it has a lot to build on, to adapt effectively to the challenges of the changing international context. The sector is an important element of EU external relations and a core component of what is often referred to as the EU’s ‘soft power’. Yet the full realisation of this potential power has often been elusive as Member States have traditionally been reluctant to give up sovereignty in this sector and the integration process has been slow, though the pandemic did encourage some progress on this with the new Team Europe approach.
Inside the EU, development cooperation as a sector has also had to find its place in the increasingly complex world of EU external action, working hand in hand not just with the common commercial policy, but, also with other areas such as humanitarian assistance, foreign and security policy or migration policy. The new NDICI single instrument gives the Commission an unprecedented ability to deploy development cooperation funds more flexibly, and the European Parliament full oversight that it never had over the EDF. However, it remains to be seen how this will affect the nature of the partnership with the ACP after decades of co-management under the Lomé and Cotonou Conventions. The course will thus explore the main emerging strands of thinking in these wider global and European debates and the impact these are likely to have on European international cooperation.
This optional course seeks to introduce students to the role of the European Union in international development cooperation, give them an appreciation of the contribution that the EU makes to this important area of global affairs and of the major challenges facing the sector. It is also intended to help them develop an understanding of how the internal organisation and dynamics of European development cooperation have evolved to create its status as an area of competence shared between the EU institutions and Member States. A central thread running through the course will be to explore whether or not further integration in this field of Union external action would improve performance and serve the best interests of development partner countries.
Professor: James MACKIE