Flexibility towards eastern neighbours and good governance emphasized to European Parliament - PASOS report on development aid policies of new EU member states

The PASOS report, commissioned by the European Parliament, and co-ordinated by the PASOS Secretariat, with the involvement of eight PASOS members, was discussed by MEPs and the European Commission following an introduction by Jeff Lovitt to the report and its conclusions. Many of the recommendations of the PASOS report on the Challenge of European Development Co-operation Policy for New Member-States, which was delivered to the development committee of the European Parliament on 4 October 2007, are reflected in the first draft of a subsequent report by the development committee, which will be put to a vote at its next meeting on 17 December 2007.

The draft report of the committee notes the experience of the new Member States, in particular of transition to democracy, and stresses that good governance must be one of their priorities in the area of development co-operation.

The PASOS report includes a set of recommendations, pointing to the need for:
• A concerted public awareness campaign to gather political and public support for increased official development assistance (ODA) and an understanding of the UN Millennium Development Goals and development targets
• Combining the existing comparative advantages in the eastern dimension with the application of select expertise in less developed countries
• Co-operation among the new member states (NMS) to strengthen the flexibility of the EU towards eastern European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) neighbours
• Improving civil society and expert capacity in NMS to transfer know-how to ENP and less developed countries
• Strengthening co-ordination agencies in NMS and between NMS and other EU member states
• Setting of a target date to untie aid
• Making good governance a priority contribution of NMS to European Development Co-operation Policy (EDCP)

Picking up on the recommendations in the PASOS report, the parliament's draft report recalls the "Eastern dimension" of EU external relations and considers that a new assembly of EU and neighbouring countries (similar to the JPA, Euromed and Eurolat) could build on historic experience, boost the input of the new Member States in EU politics, and help to co-shape the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The draft report also calls for greater co-ordination among relevant national stakeholders and an appropriate involvement by NGOs in national strategy-making processes.

PASOS is currently preparing further feedback to the development committee of the European Parliament in response to the development committee's draft paper.