Meeting of ACP National and Regional Authorizing Officers in the margins of the ACP Council of ministers

ACP National and Regional Authorizing Officers meeting in Brussels from 10 to 12 May 2003 have pointed out that the EDF resources allocated to their countries are disbursed at too slow a rate for them to be efficaciously utilized within the prescribed deadline, and that this is partly due the reforms of the external services of the European Commission, the incessant amendments to its regulations, and the lack of experience, sometimes, of the EU delegation staff. To conclude their meeting, they adopted the Brussels Declaration calling for an efficient implementation of EDF-funded projects and programmes.

Meeting under the chairmanship of the Minister of Planning and Development Cooperation of Suriname, Mr. Kermechend Raghoebarsing, the members of ACP governments in charge of the implementation of the EDF National and Regional Indicative programmes also discussed inter alia, serious issues besides the disbursement of the EDF fund, mid-term review, eventual budgetization of the EDF, the Investments facility, the negotiations of the ACP-EU Economic Partnership Agreements, and the participation of non-state actors.

Slow rate of disbursement of EDF resources The ACP Authorizing Officers identified the following as some of the main causes: reform of the external services of the Commission, including the closure or reduction of the staff position of the delegations; frequent changes to, and amendment of, EC regulations, especially the concentration of the decision-making process in Brussels in spite of the decentralization; frequent staff rotation, inexperience of the delegation staff as well as insufficient capacities for analysis, planning, formulation and implementation of projects and management of aid in ACP countries. They recommended, among other things, the employment of qualified and experienced staff in the EU delegations, enhancing the capacities of the staff and of the ACP Governments, actual decentralization of ACP-EU cooperation, harmonization of donor rules, procedures and benchmarks, and improvement of the efficiency and transparency of the activities of the EDF Committee, which should not exclude the participation of ACP representatives as observers.

Mid-term review of the utilization of resources The ACP Authorizing Officers expressed concern at the relevance of the criteria in respect of which EDF resources provided for a country or an ACP region could be reviewed downwards if they were not used sufficiently, since the Commission had made provision only for assessing the performance of the ACP, not their own. They deemed it indispensable for the two parties to jointly redefine these criteria.

Investments facility The ACP regretted that the broad lines for the implementation of the Investments Facility had been prepared by the EIB and approved by the European Commission without consulting the ACP, and that several constraints were hindering a large number of poor countries from benefiting from it. They recommended, among other things, the clarification of the criteria governing the application of the conditionalities, interest rates, a minimum amount of direct loans, and financing the highly-indebted poor countries (HIPC).

Negotiation of the EPAs Just like the other bodies of the Group, such as the Heads of ACP regional integration organizations who met just before them, the ACP Authorizing Officers raised the divergences between the two parties in the negotiations on issues relating to Phase I thereof and insisted, among other things, on obtaining guarantees that the EPAs would not divert the resources set aside for development.

Among the other recommendations of the National and Regional Authorizing officers are the conduct of an impact study on the budgetization of the EDF, and implementation of the eligibility criteria approved by the ACP and EU for access of the non-state actors to EDF resources. One of the items on the meeting’s agenda related to an exchange of views with a delegation from the European Commission.