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- Author: Karin Arts x
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This chapter examines two main lines of developments within the European Union (EU) that have affected the geographical scope of, political priority for, and substantive orientation of, its development cooperation policy. These are the changes in EU membership over time and the ever advancing European integration process. Between 1957 and 1995, the original six-member European Economic Community grew to the current fifteen-member European Union. There has been a historical pattern of new European Community member states influencing the geographical scope of EC development policy and programmes. The chapter shows that their overall impact on development policy has been significant, especially since the 1990s. In particular, expanding EU membership, Constituent Treaty changes, the Common Foreign and Security Policy, and the pressure to increase accountability, transparency and efficiency, have diluted the Union's interest in development cooperation with the South.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the European Union (EU) stands out as an important regional organization. This book focuses on the influence of the World Bank on the EU development cooperation policy, with special emphasis on the Lomé Convention. It explains the influence of trade liberalisation on EU trade preferences and provides a comparative analysis of the content and direction of the policies developed towards the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP), the Mediterranean, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. It looks at the trade-related directorates and their contribution to the phenomenon referred as 'trade liberalisation'. This includes trends towards the removal or elimination of trade preferences and the ideology underlying this reflected in and created by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organisation (GATT/WTO). The book examines the role of the mass media because the media are supposed to play a unique role in encouraging political reactions to humanitarian emergencies. The bolting on to development 'policy' of other continents, and the separate existence of a badly run Humanitarian Office (ECHO), brought the lie to the Maastricht Treaty telling us that the EU really had a coherent development policy. The Third World in general, and Africa in particular, are becoming important components in the EU's efforts to develop into a significant international player. The Cotonou Agreement proposes to end the preferential trade margins accorded to non-least developed ACP states in favour of more liberal free trade agreements strongly shaped by the WTO agenda.
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on concepts discussed in this book. The book assesses the record of development cooperation from the Treaty of Rome to Lomé, and beyond to Cotonou. It also assesses the implications of the trends identified for future development policy and to conceptualise the role of European Union (EU) external action in the realm of development. Development policy constitutes a key aspect of EU foreign policy. The negotiations for future African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)-EU trade aim to create free trade areas between the European Community (EC) and sub-regions of the ACP group. The Cotonou Agreement proposes finally to end the preferential trade margins accorded to non-least developed ACP states in favour of more liberal free trade agreements strongly shaped by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agenda.
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the influence of the World Bank on European Union (EU) development cooperation policy, with special emphasis on the Lomé Convention. It assumes that there are a number of causal factors in the disappearance of a unique European development policy, which was regularly referred to as a positive model for such a policy. The book explains the influence of trade liberalisation on EU trade preferences. It seeks to identify the main determinants of EU trade policy in relation to the developing countries. The book provides a comparative analysis of the content and direction of the policies developed towards the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP), the Mediterranean, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. It looks into the bureaucratic politics of EU aid.