Where is European development policy heading?

Since 2000, combating poverty has been the top priority of European development policy. This objective was already included in the "Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe" signed in Rome in October 2004 and was almost given constitutional status as part of the "Constitution for Europe" project. This publication begins by tracing the main features and the most important controversies in the almost ten-year history of European development policy reform. In addition, the main problems of European development policy are outlined, the reform responses of the EU Commission and the EU Council of Ministers are analyzed and the policy measures taken are evaluated.

The new conception of European development policy found its visible expression in the year 2000 in a newly formulated political strategy, which was intended to take into account the criticism of the 1990s. The reform process that followed culminated five years later in a development policy declaration that laid the foundation for the current EU development policy.

After the past eventful years of reform for European development policy, the authors critically assess the results of the reforms to date and outline prospects for a European development policy for the 21st century. In view of the forthcoming second mid-term review of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2010, the text concludes with a series of recommendations for the implementation and further shaping of European development policy as an independent policy area of the European Union, which should be understood as a political call to action.

Authors: Tobias Hauschild and Klaus Schilder. Published by WEED and terre des hommes, April 2009