ABSTRACT
The oft-heard statement that ‘Europe’ is the biggest aid provider in the world refers to the collective aid disbursed by the European Union (EU) Member States (MS) and the EU institutions, thereby suggesting that there must be a common ‘European’ development policy. It remains however unclear whether we see anything more than face-value Europeanisation in the area of development. In this chapter, we argue that, in relation to the ‘change and action’ framework, we have clearly seen change at the EU level, especially since the 2000s. We have also seen change at the MS level, since the end of the Cold War (see Arts and Dickson, 2004). There has been a greater emphasis on poverty reduction but also security (see Faust and Messner, 2005). The extent to which these changes are as a result of EU action is less clear, as we will show. Whilst the Commission has acted as a supranational actor in this field, the variety of actors in the global development field, such as the OECD DAC, the UN etc. muddy the waters somewhat. The global development architecture is in a state of flux at present, with non-DAC donors such as China and India yet to embrace the existing aid architecture. At the same time, budgetary pressures have led EU MS to reconsider previous aid commitments, and geopolitical evolutions have fuelled calls for a more pragmatic and security-oriented EU approach to developing countries.
