Development Cooperation Of The New Eu Member States

The book provides a comprehensive analysis of the international development policies of ten Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU between 2004 and 2007. The contributors offer the first thorough overview of the 'new' EU member states' development cooperation programmes, placing them in a larger political and societal context.

The book provides a comprehensive analysis of the international development policies of ten Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU between 2004 and 2007. The contributors offer the first thorough overview of the 'new' EU member states' development cooperation programmes, placing them in a larger political and societal context.

The authors of this text assess why EU development policy has become largely ineffective, citing as reasons the liberalization of trade and the growing influence of US and international players such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund upon EU policy.

This book examines the international development policies of five East Central European new EU member states, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. These countries turned from being aid recipients to donors after the turn of the millennium in the run-up to EU accession in 2004. The book explains the evolution subsequent to EU accession and current state of foreign aid policies in the region and the reasons why these deviate from many of the internationally agreed best practices in development cooperation. It argues that after the turn of the millennium, a 'Global Consensus' has emerged on how to make foreign aid more effective for development. A comparison between the elements of the Global Consensus and the performance of the five countries reveals that while they have generally implemented little of these recommendations, there are also emerging differences between the countries, with the Czech Republic and Slovenia clearly aspiring to become globally responsible donors. Building on the literatures on foreign policy analysis, international socialization and interest group influence, the book develops a model of foreign aid policy making in order to explain the general reluctance of the five countries in implementing international best practices, and also the differences in their relative performance.

Events of the past twenty years, including the Cold War and the War on Terror, have meant that the environments of international development co-operation have changed extensively, with dramatic consequences for development policies and North-South relations in general. Perspectives on European Development Cooperation takes stock of such changes, describing and analyzing the new European development agenda, including the role of the European Union. Essays by prominent authorities in the field examine the development policies of individual donor countries and focus on the principles and objectives governing aid strategies and the performances of these policies. This book will be of interest to students of development studies and those involved in determining development policy.

"Official Development Assistance, or foreign aid, disbursed by the EU member states reached record levels in 2008, when several member states raised their assistance considerably and when some of the new member states became donors again. ... [This book] analyses a wide range of aspects of European development cooperation, covering, among others, some hotly debated issues such as the Economic Partnership Agreements, policy coherence and the participation of civil society organisations in negotiations with the European Union"--Quatrième de couverture.

In recognition of the fact that EU policies in non-development areas, such as trade, energy and migration, can also profoundly affect the poor in developing countries, the EU has affirmed?Policy Coherence for Development? as an important principle for achieving more effective development cooperation. This new CEPS study analyses whether policy-making processes in the EU Council provide sufficient scope for development inputs to be made in 12 key policy areas: trade, environment, climate change, security, agriculture, fisheries, social dimension of globalisation, employment and decent work, migration, research and innovation, information society, transport and energy. The study also includes coverage of the policy-making processes in the European Commission as it initiates and defends most of the policies being discussed in the EU Council. Its findings point to the highly segregated character of EU policy-making and provide interesting insights into the internal challenges the EU will need to address in order to fulfil its goal of achieving greater coherency in its (external) policy-making. To strengthen the potential for PCD the study suggests six proposals for structural reform as well as a set of specific recommendations.