18 EU External Action: the Instrument
for Stability
| (30859) 12674/09 + ADD 1 COM(09) 341
| Commission Report: Annual Report on the Instrument for St ability in 2008
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| Legal base | —
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| Document originated | 9 July 2009
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| Deposited in Parliament | 17 August 2009
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| Department | Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 20 August 2009
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| Previous Committee Report | None; but see (29656) —: HC 16-xxiv (2007-08), chapter 11 (18 June 2008) and (27653-55)—: HC 34-xxxv (2005-06), chapter 11 (12 July 2006)
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| To be discussed in Council | To be determined
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
18.1 Towards the end of the previous Financial Perspective, the
Commission and Council decided to replace the then plethora of
financial instruments for the delivery of external assistance
with a simpler, more efficient framework. Instead of the wide
range of geographical and thematic instruments that had grown
up in an ad-hoc manner over time, the new framework comprises
six instruments only, four of them new. The four new instruments
are:
— an
Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance;
— a European Neighbourhood and Partnership
Instrument
— a Development Cooperation and Economic
Cooperation Instrument, and
— an Instrument for Stability.
18.2 The first three all essentially repackage existing
EC activity. The Instrument for Stability, however,
is a new instrument to tackle crises and instability in third
countries and address trans-border challenges including nuclear
safety and non-proliferation, the fight against trafficking, organised
crime and terrorism. [66]
18.3 We cleared the draft IfS Regulation on 12 July
2006.[67] At that time,
we noted that the then Minister for Europe (Mr Geoffrey Hoon)
confirmed that an original concern — how in practice it
would be prevented from encroaching on Common Foreign and Security
Policy (CFSP) activities and objectives — had been overcome.
The later stages of negotiation were difficult precisely because
of the need to maintain a clear distinction with CFSP activities;
but having worked hard to ensure that activities covered by the
Regulation were limited to those falling within the scope of the
Community's powers relating to development co-operation and economic
co-operation, he was satisfied that the agreed text met concerns
in these areas. He said that the Stability Instrument would cater
for many of the kinds of activities the existing Rapid Reaction
Mechanism was intended to cover as well as other existing Community
activities in relation to, for example, combating anti-personnel
landmines, reestablishment of civilian administration in DR Congo
and Afghanistan, planning economic reconstruction in Iraq and
supporting post-tsunami reconstruction around the Indian Ocean
— "all of critical importance to the Government's objectives".
The Commission would be required to submit all projects for the
opinion of the Stability Instrument Management Committee, composed
of representatives of all Member States — something on which
he said that he had insisted, in order to exercise proper political
control.
18.4 The Instrument for Stability was allocated €2.1
billion between 2007 and 2013. The UK's share of the allocation
is 17%, i.e. €350.5 million.
The 2008 Annual Report
18.5 An Annual report must be submitted to the European
Parliament and the Council in compliance with Article 23
of Regulation (EC) No. 1717/2006 of the European Parliament and
the Council of 15 November 2006 establishing an Instrument for
Stability (the IfS Regulation). This is, accordingly, the second
such Annual Report.
18.6 The instrument is split into short term (70%
of funding) and longer term (30% of funding) measures, which work
to build capacity to contain and prevent instability in third
countries through advising, training and financial support to
recipient countries. The Report details progress in 2008 on IfS
short term projects and provides an update on the financial commitments
for the longer term measures.
18.7 The short term component provides technical
and financial assistance to help countries respond to crises or
emerging crises. The commitment for 2008 was €137,107,869,
which has funded a wide range of projects across a broad range
of thematic issues:
¾ short
term advice on post-conflict security reform in the Central African
Republic, Palestine and Timor Leste;
¾ measures
in areas where European Security and Defence (ESDP) missions are
deployed, for example in Kosovo and Palestine;
¾ post-conflict
support and post-disaster recovery programmes in Georgia, Lebanon,
Bangladesh and Peru;
¾ support
for the rule of law and transitional justice in Sierra Leone and
Solomon Islands.
18.8 Regionally the majority of support has been
in Africa (29%), then Asia (17%), the Middle East (12%), Kosovo
and Georgia.
18.9 The IfS long term component covers crisis preparedness
to trans-regional security threats such as non-proliferation,
trafficking, organised crime and terrorism.
18.10 The 2008 Annual Action Programme for trans-regional
actions in the areas of organised crime and trafficking (€13.3
million) was adopted in November 2008, and provides funding for
the Expert Support Facility (ESF) to identify potential projects
using Member State expertise, and for measures in Afghanistan,
Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
18.11 The 2008 Annual Action Programme for risk mitigation
relating to chemical, nuclear and biological materials (€23.5
million) was adopted in December 2008. The programme provides
support for alternative employment of former weapon scientists,
enhance export controls, and to strengthen the capabilities and
intelligence systems to fight illicit trafficking of materials.
The 2008 programme has extended the geographical scope beyond
the former Soviet Union, to include countries such as Thailand,
Egypt, Turkey and China.
18.12 The Commission will complete its first review
to evaluate the implementation of the Instrument in its first
three years by 31 December 2010.
The Government's view
18.13 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 20 August
2009, the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
(Mr Ivan Lewis) says that the UK supports the IfS measures as
part of a comprehensive approach to crisis response. He notes
that funding can be deployed rapidly and flexibly following a
crisis, complementing other Financial Instruments for External
Actions, including European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP)
missions:
"For example, in Kosovo the IfS is contributing
€10m to support the running costs of the International Civilian
Office (ICO). The ICO, headed by International Civilian Representative,
Pieter Feith, supports Kosovo 's institutions,
implementing UN Special Envoy's Comprehensive Proposal for
Kosovo's Status Settlement."
18.14 The Minister also notes that the IfS longer
term measures support UK priorities in the fight against organised
crime and counter-proliferation, drawing attention to UK expert
participation in 2008 in Expert Support Facility workshops run
by the Commission which influence long term work programmes, for
example on bio-safety and security.
18.15 The Minister also notes that the Instrument
for Stability total allocation of €2.1bn between 2007 and
2013 has been reduced by €240 million, which was transferred
to another EU budget line — the Food Facility — to
help the Commission's response to the increase in world food prices.
18.16 On the key issue of evaluation, the Minister
says:
"With a project length of between 12 and 18
months, some 2008 short term crisis response measures are still
being implemented. The Commission has provided a progress report
on all 2007 and 2008 measures in the Annex to the Annual Report.
The Commission intends to conduct a full evaluation of 2007 and
2008 short term measures in 2009/10, in which the UK is participating.
The long term crisis preparedness measures are harder to evaluate
at this stage as some 2007 projects have only started to be implemented
in 2009."
Conclusion
18.17 The new arrangements appear to have consolidated
the good start that we noted a year ago. However, the acid test
will be the mid-term review in 2010.
18.18 Though the Report raises no concerns at
this juncture, we considered that it warranted a Report to the
House because of the magnitude of expenditure, the nature of the
issues that the IfS is designed to tackle and the inter-relationship
with the Council's ESDP activities.
18.19 We now clear the document.
66 Two existing instruments, for Humanitarian Aid,
and for Macro Financial Assistance, were judged not to be in need
of modification, and were maintained. See http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/reform/intro/ip04_1151.htm
for further background. Back
67
See headnote. Back
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