19 October 2015: The European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Neven Mimica (Croatia), has launched the Commission’s 2015 report on policy coherence for development (PCD). PCD seeks to minimize contradictions and build synergies between different EU policies, to benefit developing countries and increase the effectiveness of development cooperation, according to the Commission.
“PCD becomes more important than ever in the context of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” said Mimica at the launch, adding that “formulating sound policies, which take into account from the outset the impacts on developing countries, will be central to the achievement of the new global goals.”
The 2015 report calls for, at the national level: addressing institutional barriers in national administrations; further consolidating systems of coordination between Ministries; and further involving national Parliaments in the PCD agenda. At the Commission level, it calls for: integrating development aspects into policy initiatives from the outset to assess potential impacts of future EU initiatives on developing countries; and setting up outreach activities to strengthen understanding of the importance of policy coherence in support of sustainable development.
The PCD was first integrated into EU fundamental law in the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, and further reinforced in the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007.
Covering the period 2013-2015, the report includes cross-cutting and thematic issues, outlines examples of progress on PCD across different policy areas, and contains sections on promoting PCD, trade and finance, food security, climate change, migration and security. It also outlines key challenges ahead. According to the report, progress on PCD over the past two years includes that within the Commission, clusters of competency areas headed by Commission Vice-Presidents promote cross-cutting and coherent policy making, while on EU external policy, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission ensure coherence between different policy strands and a common approach for EU external action. The report also outlines that, overall, PCD is progressing across Member States, with legal and political requirements, reporting, coordination mechanisms and coherence-related work on the rise.
The report states that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the agricultural trade policy continue to align closely with development policy, and are becoming increasingly development-friendly. It notes that the EU has played a leading role in promoting high levels of environmental protection in the negotiation of new agreements or amendments to Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA), and that these agreements are beneficial for developing countries pursuing economic development, while improving environmental management through sustainable waste treatment, sustainable management of natural resources, better access to water and energy, and better health outcomes from controlled pollution.
The report also outlines that the EU has taken a number of initiatives to strengthen the links and coherence between humanitarian and development approaches to forced displacement in current crisis areas, such as: the launch of a Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP) for refugees and host communities in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, and the approval of a new comprehensive strategy in the field of relief, stabilization and development in Syria and Iraq, with a commitment of €1 billion in funding for the next two years.
On security, the report notes that the EU Comprehensive Approach from December 2013 is about working together better and enhancing the coherence, effectiveness and impact of the EU’s policy and action, in particular in relation to conflict prevention and crisis resolution, and outlines that the Action Plan 2015 on Taking Forward the EU’s Comprehensive Approach to external conflict and crises defines concrete initiatives to promote and consolidate the approach. [EC Press Release] [Publication: Policy Coherence for Development: 2015 EU Report] [PCD Webpage]