The European Development Fund (EDF) is the main instrument for European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 (EU) aid for development cooperation in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

, and Pacific (ACP Group) countries and the Overseas Countries and Territories

Special member state territories and their relations with the European Union

Several European Union member states have special territories which, for historical, geographical, or political reasons, enjoy special status within or outside of the European Union. These statuses range from no or limited derogation from EU policies, limited inclusion in EU policies or none at all...

 (OCT). Funding is provided by voluntary donations by EU member states.

Articles 131 and 136 of the 1957 Treaty of Rome

Treaty of Rome

The Treaty of Rome, officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, was an international agreement that led to the founding of the European Economic Community on 1 January 1958. It was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany...

 provided for its creation with a view to granting technical and financial assistance to African countries that were still colonised at that time and with which certain countries had historical links.

Usually lasting 6 years, each EDF lays out EU assistance to both individual countries and regions as a whole. The EU is currently on its 10th EDF from 2008-2013 with a budget of €22.7 billion. This currently represent about 30% of EU spending on humanitarian aid, with the remainder coming directly from the EU budget.

The budget of the 10th EDF can be broken down as follows:

• €21 966 million to the ACP countries (97% of the total),

1. €17 766 million to the national and regional indicative programmes (81% of the ACP total),
2. €2 700 million to intra-ACP and intra-regional cooperation (12% of the ACP total),
3. €1 500 million to Investment Facilities (7% of the ACP total).
   • €286 million to the OCTs (1% of the total),
   • €430 million to the Commission as support expenditure for programming and implementation of the EDF (2% of the total).

There is currently a debate on whether to 'budgetise' the EDF. The perceived advantages include:

• contributions would be based on GNI
  GNI
  GNI may stand for:* Gesher New Instructions, a computer processor instruction set* Global Network Initiative, an Internet freedom and privacy organization* Greater Nagoya Initiative, a Japanese business model project...
  
   and this may increase the currently voluntary contributions
• the harmonisation of EU budget and EDF administration might decrease administration costs and increase effectiveness of the aid
• 20% of aid to the ACP countries already originates from the EU budget
• an all-ACP geographic strategy is no longer relevant as programmes are more localised to regions or country-level
• there would be increase democratic control and parliamentary scrutiny

The perceived disadvantages are that:

• 90% of EDF resources reach low-income countries as opposed to less than 40% of aid from the EU budget development instruments
• a loss of aid predictability and aid quality as the EU budget is annual, unlike the 6-year budget of the EDF

See also

• Development Cooperation Instrument
  Development Cooperation Instrument
  Development Cooperation Instrument has three main functions:# Provides assistance to South Africa and 47 developing countries in Latin America and Asia# Supports the adaptation process of the sugar sector in 18 ACP Sugar Protocol Countries...
  
  
• ACP-EU Development Cooperation
  ACP-EU Development Cooperation
  Development cooperation between the European Union and the countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007. Although bilateral relations have always been and still remain one of the main features of modern development cooperation, it was the...
  
  
• ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
  ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
  The ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly was created to bring together the elected representatives of the European Union and the elected representatives of the African, Caribbean and Pacific states that have signed the Cotonou Agreement.Since the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union...
  
  
• EuropeAid Co-Operation Office
  EuropeAid Co-operation Office
  The Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid Directorate General is one of the departments of the European Commission. EuropeAid operates under the authority of the European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs.- Background :...
  
  
• The Courier (ACP-EU)
  The Courier (ACP-EU)
  The Courier is an ACP-EU development magazine published by the Development Directorate General of the European Commission, focusing on ACP-EU Development Cooperation. Financed by the European Development Fund , it is published every two months...
  
  : The magazine of Africa-Caribbean-Pacific and European Union cooperation and relations

External links

• Europa: Summaries of EU legislation: European Development Fund
• What is 10th EDF programming? EC aid programming for ACP countries
• EC Aid to Africa African Voices in Europe