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Meeting on the margins of the General Affairs and External Relations Council, PES Development and Cooperation Ministers agreed today that EU development policy, implemented closely with the new High Representative, must retain a sufficient level of autonomy and ambition as the Lisbon Treaty comes into force.

In a statement released after the meeting, the Ministers and PES Party Spokespersons specified that this autonomy could be granted through “a single development service within the Commission under the authority of a Commissioner for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs.”

The Ministers agreed that the principle of autonomy must furthermore be applied to climate financing for adaptation and mitigation, which should be “additional to existing Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds”. The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, according to the statement, “should decide on a long-term plan for a new environmental regime which will affect the planet at large.”

Addressing the issue of financing emissions reductions internationally, the Ministers suggested exploring innovative financial mechanisms. The suggested mechanisms include financial transaction taxes and the use of Special Drawing Rights (the IMF’s ‘basket’ currency). Meanwhile the impact of the economic crisis on developing countries requires developed countries to maintain their Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments without changes to rules that may lead to deviations from the objective of poverty eradication.  

PES Ministers also discussed policy coherence and coordination, stressing that all policies with an impact on developing countries should be coherent with development policy and its objectives.

The meeting was attended by Soraya Rodríguez, Secretary of State for Cooperation, Spain; Laszlo Varkoniy, Secretary of State of International Development, Hungary; Mike Foster, Minister of State for International Development, Great Britain; Maria Arena MP, PS Belgium; Marleen Temmerman MP, SPa Belgium; Thijs Berman MEP, Coordinator of the S&D Group; and Enrique Guerrero Salom MEP, PSOE Spain.

Participants list