46 2015 EU accountability report on financing
for development
| Committee's assessment
| Politically important |
| Committee's decision | Cleared from scrutiny; drawn to the attention of the International Development Committee; relevant to the debate recommended elsewhere on the Commission Communication "A Global Partnership for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development after 2015"
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| Document details | Commission Staff Working Document
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| Legal base | —
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| Department | Energy and Climate Change, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and International Development
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| Document Numbers | (36801), 10294/15 + ADD 1, SWD(15) 128
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Summary and Committee's conclusions
46.1 The EU Accountability Report on Financing for Development
(FFD) is an annual Commission publication detailing EU and Member
States' progress towards past development finance commitments.
46.2 The Report finds that 23 of 41 targets have
been met or are "on track" to be met. The Commission's
assessment is that a further nine are only partially "off
track" and could still be met. The Commission assesses strong
progress on domestic resource mobilisation, private finance for
development, combining public and private finance for development,
and using development finance effectively.
46.3 The Ministers at the Departments for International
Development (Baroness Verma), Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Rory Stewart) and Energy and Climate Change (Lord Bourne) note
that the EU record on international public finance for development
in particular is less good, with only four of 14 targets on track.
They also highlight the collective commitment for developed countries
to spend 0.7% Gross National Income (GNI) as Official Development
Assistance (ODA):
"seen by many as the most important FFD commitment,
[it] is assessed as very off track (and it is clear that it will
not be met by the target date of 2015). However, importantly the
UK is recognised as having met the target alongside Sweden, Denmark
and Luxembourg."
46.4 This year's Report, which reviews the entire
series of reports from 2002 to 2013 together with new information
on progress in 2014, comes at a crucial juncture in the negotiations
on the design of the new global framework for sustainable development,
which will be centre stage at the UN Financing for Development
Conference, in Addis Ababa, in July 2015 and the UN Summit on
the new Sustainable Development Goals in in September 2015 (which
will in turn "read-across" to the Conference of the
Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris
in December).
46.5 Elsewhere in this Report we consider the
latest stage of the Committee's consideration of the Commission
Communication: A Global Partnership for Poverty Eradication
and Sustainable Development after 2015, which sets out the
Commission's views on the delivery of a new global partnership
for poverty eradication and sustainable development after 2015.
The same Ministers have provided us with their views on the Conclusions
agreed on 26 May 2015 "Development" Foreign Affairs
Council, which set out the EU's high-level position for the ongoing
FFD negotiations, and which they describe as providing "helpful
clarity in the run up to the Financing for Development Conference".[ 347]
46.6 In that part of our Report, we conclude that
the time has now come for the major developments in the Commission
Communication and the Council Conclusions to be debated in European
Committee B. We have recommended that this debate should be held
immediately after the House returns from the "conference"
recess, so that the House can be provided with, and discuss, the
Government's analysis of the outcome of both the Addis Ababa "Financing
for Development" conference and the discussions at the United
Nations in September.[ 348]
46.7 We think that this chapter of our Report
should be "tagged" to that debate.
46.8 If any Council Conclusions are adopted on
this Commission Staff Working Document before then, we should
be grateful if the Minister would provide the Committee with a
copy.
46.9 In the meantime, we now clear this Commission
Staff Working Document from scrutiny.
Full
details of the documents:
Commission Staff Working Document: "2015
EU Accountability Report on Financing for Development":
(36801), 10294/15 + ADD 1, SWD(15) 128.
Background
46.10 The EU Accountability Report on Financing for
Development (FFD) is an annual publication by the European Commission.
It responds to the Council's mandate to the Commission to monitor
progress and report annually on the EU's collective aid commitments.
It initially focused on commitments of official development assistance
(ODA) made at the 2002 International Conference on Financing for
Development in Monterrey. The Council later expanded the original
monitoring mandate to cover more areas, including domestic revenue
mobilisation, aid effectiveness, aid for trade, and fast-start
climate finance.
46.11 The Commission notes that this year's report
comes at a crucial juncture in the negotiations on the design
of the new global framework for sustainable development: financing
issues will be discussed, as part of the overall Means of Implementation,
at the UN Financing for Development Conference, in Addis Ababa,
in July 2015; while a UN Summit is expected to agree on the new
Sustainable Development Goals in New York in September 2015. These
will in turn have a "read-across" to the Conference
of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
in Paris in December:
"Implementing what will be an ambitious and
comprehensive new development agenda will undoubtedly require
an unprecedented effort by all, and securing the required means
of implementation — including financing — for the
agenda will be crucial to its success."[ 349]
46.12 The entire series of reports from 2002 to 2013
was reviewed for this report, together with new information on
progress in 2014. The Commission describes the overall picture
as encouraging: 23 out of 41 EU commitments have been met or are
"on track" to be met; another nine are only partially
"off track"; and the EU is "off track" to
meet the remaining nine commitments. The EU is described as doing
well in private finance for development (see section 4), combining
public and private finance (section 6), and using development
finance effectively (section 7). It has made less progress on
public finance (section 5) where it has fallen short of "ambitious"
ODA targets.[ 350]
46.13 In their Explanatory Memorandum of 10 July
2015, the Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State at the Departments
for International Development (Baroness Verma), Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Rory Stewart) and Energy and Climate Change
(Lord Bourne) note that, as a factual technical document containing
information on EU institutions' and Member States' progress towards
previous FFD commitments, which does not articulate Member State
views or EU policy, there are no policy implications per se
in relation to the EU Accountability Report. They expect that
the Luxembourg EU Presidency will adopt Council Conclusions on
the Accountability Report, but the timing is not yet clear; they
undertake to keep the Committee informed of any forward looking
commitments or proposals.
The Government's view
46.14 The Ministers note that the UK has been a
longstanding supporter of this Report, which they describes as
"a valuable transparency tool", and "a regular
accountability mechanism for the EU's 0.7% ODA commitment, as
well as other important pledges in relation to FFD". They
also welcome the Commission's decision to bring forward publication
of the 2015 Report, to make the information available in advance
of the Addis Ababa FFD Conference.
Previous Committee Reports
None.
347 See (36644), 5902/15 at chapter 2 of this Report
for the Ministers' full view on these Council Conclusions (which
themselves run to 64 paragraphs over 23 pages). Back
348 Ibid. Back
349 SWD(15) 128, p.11. Back
350 See "Highlights" for full detail. Back
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