European Community |EC
Introduction to EC Aid
EuroNGOs | Contact | DSW	ToC | Background | Intro | EC1A | EC1B | EC2 | EC3 | EC4 | EC5 | EC6 | EC7 | EC8 | EC9

"European Community (EC) aid" refers to assistance that is channelled through and managed by the European Commission, excluding Member States' bilateral aid.

The European Community and its Member States together make up the world's largest donor of international aid, accounting for over half of global Official Development Assistance (ODA). Taken alone, the European Community still ranks as the world's fourth largest aid donor, accounting for 10% of ODA.¹

Community aid, which amounted to EUR 8.31 billion in 2002, is derived from two distinct sources: the annual EC budget and the European Development Fund (EDF).

The EDF is financed by contributions from the Member States and supports African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, while the EC budget provides for, among others, co-operation with developing countries in all other geographic regions and countries.

THE EC'S DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION POLICY

In 2000, the European Commission adopted an overall development policy framework, which establishes poverty alleviation as the ultimate objective of EC aid and reaffirms the EC's commitment to international development targets. It takes into account the political, trade and development aspects of aid and pledges to ensure coherence and co-ordination in the assistance provided by the Community and the EU Member States.

The Commission, in emphasising the importance of re-focusing Community development policy on poverty reduction, set out an integrated framework for Community development activities, identifying six priority areas where Community action could offer added value: trade and development; regional integration and co-operation; support for macroeconomic policies (in particular sector programmes in the areas of health and education); transport; food security and sustainable rural development strategies; institutional capacity-building, good governance and the rule of law.

The new policy also emphasises the need for a greater focus on sectors where the EC considers it has a comparative advantage, and highlights health and education as priority areas in the context of social and human development.

MANAGEMENT OF EC AID

In order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of EC aid, the overall management of the EC's external assistance underwent a review. Since January 2001, the responsibilities of the Directorates involved in EC development aid have been structured as follows:

• The EuropeAid Co-operation Office became operational on 1 January 2001 and is responsible for all phases of the project cycle, from project and programme identification, to implementation, appraisal and evaluation. During the 1999 – 2004 European Commission, EU Commissioner Patten was its Chairman and Commissioner Nielson its Chief Executive. Mr. Bonacci, as Director General of the EuropeAid Co-operation Office, was responsible for the technical, administrative and financial implementation of EC external assistance.
• DG DEV is responsible for development policy formulation and country programming, in particular for ACP countries.
• ECHO's responsibilities remain unaffected.
• DG RELEX is responsible for policies and programmes in the Mediterranean, the Gulf, Asia, Latin America, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. .
• The Interservice Quality Support Group (IQSG) is responsible for quality control across all EC development programmes.
• A new Evaluation Unit has also been established, which is in charge of the assessment of the European Commission’s co-operation and development programmes in third countries with the exception of accession countries and humanitarian aid.

The creation of EuropeAid is one of the pillars of the Commission's reform strategy, which aims to:

• improve significantly the quality of project and programme management;
• reduce the time taken to implement approved projects and programmes;
• ensure sound and accountable financial, technical and contractual management procedures;
• improve the impact and visibility of EC development co-operation.

DECONCENTRATION

As part of the overhaul of the management of EC aid, and in an effort to improve the quality and speed of aid delivery of all programmes, more responsibility is being transferred to the Commission's Delegations in beneficiary countries. The Commission is represented in 128 countries world-wide, and these will play an increasingly important role in development assistance. The Delegations' capacity will be strengthened and they will not only be closely involved in programming, but will also manage projects directly. This process of devolution of responsibility to the Delegations is expected to be completed by the end of 2004.

So far, devolution is operational in a total of 71 Delegations, effectively completing the process for geographised programmes in Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia and Latin America as well as in over 80% of all ACP Delegations. It appears that this has already had an impact in terms of quality and speed of implementation in these regions.

For further information on this process, go to: http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/reform/document/presentation.pdf

EC AID FOR SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

The EC's spending on health and population programmes has been increasing steadily over the past decade. Since 1986, aid to this sector has grown from barely 1% of total EC aid to more than 8% of the total, compared to an OECD average of around 5.5% in 1998.

In 2001, the European Commission alone committed just under EUR 20.7 million to Health, AIDS and Population (HAP) programmes. These funds were distributed between HIV/AIDS (EUR 15.2 million) and reproductive health (EUR 5.5 million), making it the second largest donor in this field after the World Bank, supporting health-related projects in over 70 countries.

HAP assistance has moved away from an initial focus on curative medicine and health infrastructure to support for basic health services, developing fully-fledged HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and population programmes, supporting health sector reform and research. Since 1987, the EC has been working with a set of policy principles and strategies to support a variety of activities to fight HIV/AIDS. These have included: multi-sectoral approaches; HIV/AIDS and life skills education for young people; the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases; information campaigns such as safe-blood and condom supply and comprehensive care for people living with HIV/AIDS. During 2000, the HIV/AIDS policy was enlarged with a more comprehensive and coherent approach towards major communicable diseases (HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis) in the context of poverty reduction. In 2002, the European Commission published a proposal for a regulation on aid for poverty diseases (HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis) in developing countries.

As a rule, EC reproductive health assistance in developing countries is channelled through:

• Geographic instruments (although NGO access is on the whole limited, since they have to tender on an equal footing with private sector enterprises)
  • Financial and technical co-operation agreements with Asian and Latin American countries (ALA) and the Mediterranean (under the MEDA programme)
  • National Indicative Programmes (NIPs) or Regional Indicative Programmes (RIPs) under the EDF for ACP countries.
• Horizontal operations including special thematic budget lines
  • Special thematic budget lines, which are directly accessible by all partners in development, particularly civil society (mainly NGOs).

The "EU/ UNFPA Reproductive Health Initiative for Youth in Asia" is an example of funds (approximately EUR 22.5 million) earmarked from the co-operation agreement with Asia for the non-profit sector. For more information on this programme, please consult the website: http://www.asia-initiative.org

USEFUL DOCUMENTS AND PROCEDURES WHEN APPLYING FOR EC FUNDING

Access to funding is governed by specific guidelines, which set out the eligibility criteria and the procedures to be followed. The guidelines for each budget line can be obtained from the relevant unit within the DG or service responsible in the European Commission. In addition to guidelines, NGOs are subject to a "Vade-mecum on Grant Management for Applicants and Beneficiaries". This Vade-mecum, in use since January 1999, is aimed at establishing transparent standards for the management of Community funds and aspires to be an accessible reference guide which should be followed wherever there are no sector-specific rules. The Vade-mecum can be accessed on the Europa website at the following address: http://www.gm-unccd.org/FIELD/Multi/EU/EU_vad.pdf

This document is for applicants and beneficiaries and outlines the Commission's policy with regard to the management of grants. It sets out the rules in force regarding applications for grants, calculation of the amount, and conditions for payment. The Vade-mecum also introduces the Standard Grant Contract which all EC departments must use. A revised Standard Contract, issued in December 2000, is available at the following address: http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/tender/gestion/index_en.htm

Calls for Proposals for budget lines are issued on the EuropeAid website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/cgi/frame12.pl as well as in the Official Journal of the European Community (OJ), in all official EU languages. The OJ can be found on the Europa website: http://publications.eu.int/general/oj_en.html

It is also advisable to maintain contact with the Commission desk officers for the countries of interest.

For all budget lines, the following tips apply:

• Always adhere strictly to the guidelines, in particular with regard to the budget which must be in EUR
• Consult and liaise with both the EC Delegation in the beneficiary country and the Brussels-based officials.

There are currently three main thematic budget lines which support reproductive health and HIV/AIDS projects, namely 21 02 03 ("Co-financing of development operations undertaken by European NGOs in developing countries” and “Operations to raise public awareness of development issues undertaken by European NGOs"), 21 02 07 03 ("Aid for population policies and reproductive health care in developing countries") and 21 02 07 02 ("Aid for poverty-related diseases (HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis) in developing countries").

Budget line 21 02 07 02 is a new line, created by the Commission in view of the EC's recent Communication and Programme of Action on fighting the world's three main communicable diseases. In the EC budgets for 2000 and 2001, reproductive health and the fight against HIV/AIDS were combined into one single budget line, i.e. 21 02 07 03. In January 2002, these budget lines were once again separated.

For more detailed information, two good sources are:

• "Handbook on EC Support for Population and Reproductive Health", edited by Marie Stopes International, London, UK
• The European NGO confederation for relief and development – CONCORD is the link between over 1500 European NGOs active in the fields of development and humanitarian aid and the EU institutions.

  CONCORD's contact details:

  CONCORD
  European NGO confederation for relief and development
  Square Ambiorix 10
  B-1000 Brussels
  Belgium
  Phone: +32 2 743 87 77
  Fax: +32 2 732 19 34
  e-mail: secretariat@concordeurope.org
  Internet: http://www.concordeurope.org

1 The eligible countries are those which figure in Part I of the OECD’s DAC List, excluding accession candidate countries. The list can be downloaded at the following address: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/35/9/2488552.pdf

latest update of this datasheet: 01.02.2005

There's also a PDF Version of this Introduction to EC Aid available - download it here. You need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the Document.