Development policy

ECHO - European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office, Burundi, Africa (Photo: European Commission)

Development policy

The Lisbon Treaty has placed development policy in the area of shared competence according to Article 4.4 TFEU and Article 208 - 214 TFEU.

It can be decided by a qualified majority in the Council and co-decision with the European Parliament. The focus of EU development policy is on poverty reduction.

Notes 

• Some EU policies have had an adverse effect on poor countries and have been heavily criticised.

• The former Danish EU Commissioner for development (1999-2004), Poul Nielson, has called the EU agricultural policy "perverse". The policy leads to the dumping of subsidised EU farm products on poor countries. These then undercut and put out of business the local farm producers. 

• Director Per Pinstrup-Andersen from the International Food Policy Research Institute pointed out in 2002 that rich countries spend 50 billion dollars in development aid but 350 billion on subsidised agricultural spending to protect their own farmers. 

Links

See also ACP Countries, Cotonou Agreement, EDF and Aid and Development.

http://ec.europa.eu/development/index_en.cfm