Select Committee on European Scrutiny Twenty-Ninth Report


DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE TO MEDITERRANEAN NEIGHBOURS (MEDA)


(20973)
5104/00
COM(99) 494

Draft Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No. 1488/96 on
financial and technical matters to accompany the reform of economic
and social structures in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean
partnership (MEDA).
Legal base: Article 308 EC; unanimity
Department: International Development
Basis of consideration: Supplementary EM of 8 November 2000
Previous Committee Report: HC 23-xxviii (1999-2000), paragraph 6 (1 November 2000)
To be discussed in Council: 15 November 2000
Committee's assessment: Politically important
Committee's decision: Cleared

Background

  28.1  The MEDA Programme is the main financial instrument of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. It provides development assistance to those 12 neighbouring countries in the Mediterranean which agreed to form the Partnership, enshrined in the 1995 Barcelona Declaration[94].

The Commission proposal

  28.2  The draft Regulation establishes MEDA II, to run from 2000. We did not clear it when we considered it on 1 November, but expressed concern about the effect of the multiannual budget on the Community's overall budget for external aid (Category 4). We therefore asked the Government to tell us what commitment the Council made to cuts in other aspects of this part of the budget, so that the ceiling would not be breached.

  28.3  We also noted that the Government had still to provide us with a view on how the Justice and Home Affairs measures were to be included.

The Supplementary EM

  28.4  In a Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum dated 8 November, the Secretary of State for International Development (The Rt. Hon. Clare Short) recalls that, after exhaustive negotiations on this proposal, agreement was reached at the 9 October General Affairs Council (GAC) on the content, except for the financial reference amount. She notes the key changes to the text, a copy of which she provides. We recorded these in general terms in our report of 1 November, but the Minister gives us some detail. The changes she notes include:

    "Objectives: there is now a specific commitment to address the poor: 'The Community shall implement measures ... to support the efforts that Mediterranean partners ... will implement to reform their economic and social structures, improve conditions for the underprivileged, and mitigate any social or environmental consequences which may result from economic development.' (Article 1);

    "Co-ordination: a stronger commitment to co-ordination both with Member States and with other donors, including the International Financial Institutions and the UN (Article 4.1);

    "Strategic approach: Country and Regional strategy papers will now be adopted by the Commission and approved by the Management Committee (Article 9); and the Commission is committed (in an accompanying declaration) to detailed examination and adoption of individual projects which are particularly sensitive;

    "Resource allocation: The Commission is required for the first time to explain its reasoning in allocating resources between countries and programmes (Article 9.1);

    "Review and Evaluation: there will now be annual reviews of the Country and Regional Strategies, as well as regular evaluations of strategies and individual projects (Article 15);

    "Poverty focus: the relevant part of Annex 2 is now much more clearly poverty focused: 'Support for sustainable economic and social development shall include in particular — the promotion of wide and equitable sharing of the fruits of growth, paying particular attention to the objectives and targets agreed at UN summits for fighting poverty and incorporated in the international development targets'."

  28.5  The Minister comments that:

    "These changes have improved the text and the outcome is reasonable given the strong resistance to our proposals from the Presidency, the Commission and some Member States."

— Justice and Home Affairs Measures

  28.6  The Minister says that the relevant parts of Annex 2 provide that support for sustainable economic and social development shall include:

    "co-operation and technical assistance in order to strengthen co-operation in the area of migrations and the context against illegal migration, including repatriation of illegal residents."

  28.7  She adds that the Government is discussing the possible implementation of this provision with the Commission and other Member States. There are no specific plans in this area at present and it remains the Government's view that the sustainable development of the MEDA developing countries must be the primary purpose of EC development assistance.

— The financial reference amount

  28.8  The Minister says:

    "The Council has been unable to agree a financial reference amount so far. The UK and four other Member States have argued for a maximum of 5 billion euros. Other Member States and the Commission have pressed for up to 7.6 billion euros. The Presidency have proposed a compromise of 5.6 billion euros, which will be discussed at a Special General Affairs Council on 15 November on the eve of the Marseilles Euro-Med Ministerial meeting."

The Minister comments that the French Presidency is making a major effort to conclude the negotiations by 16 November.

Conclusion

  28.9  The Minister has given us a clear account of the state of the negotiations on the financial reference amount, as of 8 November. The compromise figure proposed by the Presidency is substantially lower than that proposed by some Member States and the Commission. We support the Government's position and ask the Minister to let us know the outcome after the Marseilles Euro-Med Ministerial.

  28.10  We now clear the document.


94  Under MEDA National Indicative Programmes, bilateral financial partnership is restricted to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, West Bank/Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey; whereas Israel, Cyprus and Malta benefit from financial allocations under the MEDA Regional Indicative Programme. Back


 
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