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153-654: The initiative was launched on September 4, 2008, at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Accra, Ghana . The goal of the forum was to refocus attention worldwide on the steps needed to reach the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals . It was presented by the United Kingdom's Secretary of International Development Douglas Alexander ; along with Kemal Derviş , Head of

306-812: A customs union . They also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) for cooperation in developing nuclear power. Both treaties came into force in 1958. Although the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein ( Hallstein Commission ) and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand ( Armand Commission ) and then Étienne Hirsch ( Hirsch Commission ). The OEEC

459-669: A proposal that linked funding with adherence to the rule of law . The budget included a COVID-19 recovery fund of €750   billion. The budget may still be approved if Hungary and Poland withdraw their vetoes after further negotiations in the council and the European Council . Bodies combatting fraud have also been established, including the European Anti-fraud Office and the European Public Prosecutor's Office . The latter

612-529: A " collective head of state " and ratifies important documents (for example, international agreements and treaties). Tasks for the president of the European Council are ensuring the external representation of the EU, driving consensus and resolving divergences among member states, both during meetings of the European Council and over the periods between them. The European Council should not be mistaken for

765-640: A "radical approach in which donors cede control to the recipient country". A report by a High Level Panel on Humanitarian Cash Transfers found that only 6% of aid is delivered in the form of cash or vouchers. But there is a growing realization among aid groups that, for locally available goods, giving cash or cash vouchers instead of imported goods is a cheaper, faster, and more efficient way to deliver aid. Evidence shows that cash can be more transparent, more accountable, more cost effective, help support local markets and economies, and increase financial inclusion and give people more dignity and choice. Sending cash

918-483: A "revolution" in food aid. While the number of Non-governmental Organization have increased dramatically over the past few decades, fragmentation in aid policy is an issue. Because of such fragmentation, health workers in several African countries, for example, say they are so busy meeting western delegates that they can only do their proper jobs in the evening. One of the Paris Declaration's priorities

1071-481: A broad consensus on what needed to be done to produce better development results. From 2011 this movement was subsumed in one concerned more broadly with effective development co-operation, largely embodied by the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation . Any discussion of "effectiveness" must rely on understandings or assumptions about aims. In public discussions of aid effectiveness,

1224-412: A decisive commitment either way, and large Russian support to China and Indonesia did not prevent those countries' leaders turning against their former patron. A more detailed theory about the kinds of effect and the causal paths through which aid could be effective was developed by Max Millikan and Walt Rostow in the mid- to late-1950s, expressed in "A Proposal" of 1956. This propounded that aid in

1377-639: A developing country's programmable aid from the European Union in recent years. Revenue generation is one of the essential pillars for developing state capacity . Effective taxation methods allow a state to provide public goods and services, from ensuring justice to providing education. Taxation simultaneously serves as a government accountability mechanism, building state-citizen relationships, as citizens can now expect such service provisions upon their consent to taxation. For developing and fragile states that lack such revenue capabilities, while aid can be

1530-485: A general "politicization of life" in which the population shifted its activities to the political sphere rather than the economic one. On the other side, Bauer saw aid's benefits as being limited to the avoidance of commercial loan costs, which he did not consider to be a significant factor in countries' development (pp. 47–49). He believed that the choices of aid projects were usually controlled by recipient governments less interested in alleviating poverty than enriching

1683-540: A gradual international trend towards more rigorous methods of impact assessment. The main findings of major econometric studies are summarized in the following table. Aid flows significantly increased in the first decade of the 21st century, but at the same time aid has become increasingly fragmented. There was an explosion in the number of donors, and while the number of projects multiplied, their average size dropped. Small projects being often limited in size, scope and duration, they resulted in little lasting benefit beyond

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1836-425: A hybrid system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making, and according to the principle of conferral (which says that it should act only within the limits of the competences conferred on it by the treaties ) and of subsidiarity (which says that it should act only where an objective cannot be sufficiently achieved by the member states acting alone). Laws made by the EU institutions are passed in

1989-409: A major food exporter. In the former Soviet states, the reconfiguration of public financing in their transition to a market economy called for reduced spending on health and education, sharply increasing poverty. In their April 2002 publication, Oxfam Report reveals that aid tied to trade liberalization by the donor countries such as the European Union with the aim of achieving economic objective

2142-516: A movement joined by major donor and recipient countries and aid-related organisations, involving a series of high level forums on aid effectiveness . The agenda of this movement was largely about good practices in donor-recipient relationships, and in some cases these good practices became seen as proxies for aid effectiveness. The historical themes of aid effectiveness are rather different for humanitarian aid and developmental aid, so these have been treated in different sections below. Although US aid

2295-530: A plan for how to use the aid based on how much money has been given to them. Alternatively, NGO 's receive funding from private sources or the government and then implement plans to address their specific issues. According to Sachs, in the view of some scholars, this system is inherently ineffective. According to Sachs, we should redefine how we think of aid. The first step should be to learn what developing countries hope to accomplish and how much money they need to accomplish those goals. Goals should be made with

2448-537: A reaction to World War I and its aftermath. In this light the first advances for the idea of European integration were made. In 1920 John Maynard Keynes proposed a European customs union for the struggling post-war European economies, and in 1923 the oldest organisation for European integration, the Paneuropean Union was founded, led by Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi , who later would found in June 1947

2601-598: A right of unilateral withdrawal under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. In addition, the principle of subsidiarity requires that only those matters that need to be determined collectively are so determined. Under the principle of supremacy , national courts are required to enforce the treaties that their member states have ratified, even if doing so requires them to ignore conflicting national law, and (within limits) even constitutional provisions. The direct effect and supremacy doctrines were not explicitly set out in

2754-494: A seemingly necessary alternative, it has the potential to undermine institutional development. States that rely on higher percentages of aid for government revenue are less accountable to their citizens by avoiding the state-citizen relationships that taxation builds and face fewer incentives to develop public institutions. The limited government capacity resulting from subpar institutional presence and effectiveness leads to: “ubiquitous corruption of state officials, large gaps between

2907-668: A set number of seats and is divided into sub-national constituencies where this does not affect the proportional nature of the voting system. In the ordinary legislative procedure , the European Commission proposes legislation, which requires the joint approval of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union to pass. This process applies to nearly all areas, including the EU budget . The parliament

3060-462: A small number provide the locations of activities and even fewer provide some form of data on the outcome", making the data difficult to use. A piece in Devex stated that while the number of organizations reporting to IATI has increased, "the biggest barrier to increased data usage remains concerns about quality" of the data. Efforts by IATI's Governing Board to address the data quality issues include

3213-495: A source of concern. Items such as religiously prohibited pork, and non-generic forms of medicine that lacked multilingual instructions came flooding in as relief. An implementation of aid can easily be problematic, causing more problems than it solves. Considering transparency, the amount of aid that is recorded accurately has risen from 42% in 2005 to 48% in 2007. Currently, donor institutions make proposals for aid packages to recipient countries. The recipient countries then make

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3366-444: A still more sophisticated and influential macro-economic model of the way aid could boost development. It involved identifying for each country whether the bottlenecks to economic growth lay in the availability of skills, domestic savings, or export earnings. In this way, an appropriate mix of technical assistance, grants or loans could be decided. The focus was on achieving a target level of GNP growth, which helped consolidate this as

3519-955: A threat, in reality the actual concern was for the Soviet Union. A few days later came the announcement of the Truman Doctrine which pledged American support for democracies to counter the Soviets. Immediately following the February 1948 coup d'état by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , the London Six-Power Conference was held, resulting in the Soviet boycott of the Allied Control Council and its incapacitation, an event marking

3672-497: A variety of forms. Generally speaking, they can be classified into two groups: those which come into force without the necessity for national implementation measures (regulations) and those which specifically require national implementation measures (directives). EU policy is in general promulgated by EU directives , which are then implemented in the domestic legislation of its member states , and EU regulations , which are immediately enforceable in all member states. Lobbying at

3825-413: A variety of purposes: some of it is aimed primarily at poverty alleviation, some at economic growth, and some at other objectives such as better governance or reduction of social inequalities. Often it is not very clear what objectives are foremost, making it hard to measure results against intentions. Roodman (2007), for instance, discovered that the results of seven previous econometric studies – including

3978-435: A windfall to governments which can encourage extreme forms of rent-seeking and through providing a positive shock of revenue, lead to Dutch Disease . Furthermore, this easy money offers governments an exit from the contract between them and their electorate: the contract that states that they must provide public goods in exchange for taxes. In short, it "allows the state to abdicate its responsibilities toward its people". It

4131-545: Is a European Commission economic recovery package to support the EU member states to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic , in particular those that have been particularly hard hit. It is sometimes styled NextGenerationEU and Next Gen EU , and also called the European Union Recovery Instrument . Agreed in principle by the European Council on 21 July 2020 and adopted on 14 December 2020,

4284-478: Is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The Union has a total area of 4,233,255 km (1,634,469 sq mi) and an estimated total population of over 449   million. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation . Containing 5.8% of

4437-646: Is a decentralized independent body of the European Union (EU), established under the Treaty of Lisbon between 22 of the 27 states of the EU following the method of enhanced cooperation . The European Public Prosecutor's Office investigate and prosecute fraud against the budget of the European Union and other crimes against the EU's financial interests including fraud concerning EU funds of over €10,000 and cross-border VAT fraud cases involving damages above €10 million. Member states retain in principle all powers except those that they have agreed collectively to delegate to

4590-640: Is based in Kirchberg, Luxembourg City alongside the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Auditors. Constitutionally, the EU bears some resemblance to both a confederation and a federation , but has not formally defined itself as either. (It does not have a formal constitution: its status is defined by the Treaty of European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of

4743-458: Is becoming detrimental to developing countries. For example, the EU subsidizes its agricultural sectors in the expense of Latin America who must liberalize trade in order to qualify for aid. Latin America, a region with a comparative advantage on agriculture and a great reliance on its agricultural export sector, loses $ 4 billion annually due to EU farming subsidy policies. Carlos Santiso advocates

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4896-437: Is by insisting on donor country products. Others have argued that tying aid to donor-country products is common sense; it is a strategic use of aid to promote donor country's business or exports. It is further argued that tied aid - if well designed and effectively managed - would not necessarily compromise the quality as well as the effectiveness of aid. However, this argument would hold particularly for programme aid, where aid

5049-615: Is cheaper as it does not have the same transaction costs as shipping goods. Sending cash is also faster than shipping the goods. In 2009 for sub-Saharan Africa, food bought locally by the WFP cost 34 percent less and arrived 100 days faster than food sent from the United States, where buying food from the United States is required by law. Cash aid also helps local food producers, usually the poorest in their countries, while imported food may damage their livelihoods and risk continuing hunger in

5202-496: Is estimated to increase the cost of aid by 15–30%. Oxfam America and American Jewish World Service report that reforming US food aid programs could extend food aid to an additional 17.1 million people around the world. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund , as primary holders of developing countries' debt, attach structural adjustment conditionalities to loans which generally include

5355-476: Is important to note that Moyo alludes specifically to government bilateral and multilateral aid and not small-holder charity, humanitarian or emergency aid. Her prescriptions call for increased trade and foreign direct investment, emphasizing China's burgeoning role in Africa. Moyo also makes a case for micro-financing schemes, as popularized by the widespread success of Grameen Bank, to spark entrepreneurship within

5508-467: Is inconsistent with EU law. It is not possible to appeal against the decisions of national courts in the CJEU, but rather national courts refer questions of EU law to the CJEU. However, it is ultimately for the national court to apply the resulting interpretation to the facts of any given case. Although, only courts of final appeal are bound to refer a question of EU law when one is addressed. The treaties give

5661-598: Is organised as a directorial system , where the executive power is jointly exercised by several people. The executive branch consists of the European Council and European Commission. The European Council sets the broad political direction of the Union. It convenes at least four times a year and comprises the president of the European Council (presently Charles Michel ), the president of the European Commission and one representative per member state (either its head of state or head of government ). The high representative of

5814-512: Is the final body to approve or reject the proposed membership of the commission, and can attempt motions of censure on the commission by appeal to the Court of Justice . The president of the European Parliament carries out the role of speaker in Parliament and represents it externally. The president and vice-presidents are elected by MEPs every two and a half years. The judicial branch of

5967-485: Is then able to recruit staff from among the pool of candidates selected by EPSO. On average, EPSO receives around 60,000–70,000 applications a year with around 1,500–2,000 candidates recruited by the European Union institutions. The European Ombudsman is the ombudsman branch of the European Union that holds the institutions, bodies and agencies of the EU to account, and promotes good administration. The Ombudsman helps people, businesses and organisations facing problems with

6120-580: Is tied to a specific projects or policies and where there is little or no commercial interest. It must be emphasized, however, that commercial interest and aid effectiveness are two different things, and it would be difficult to pursue commercial interest without compromising aid effectiveness. Thus, the idea of maximizing development should be separated from the notion of pursuing commercial interest. Tied aid improves donors export performance, creates business for local companies and jobs. It also helps to expose firms, which have not had any international experience on

6273-486: Is to reduce systems of aid that are "parallel" to local systems. For example, Oxfam reported that, in Mozambique, donors are spending $ 350 million a year on 3,500 technical consultants, which is enough to hire 400,000 local civil servants, weakening local capacity. Between 2005 and 2007, the number of parallel systems did fall, by about 10% in 33 countries. In order to improve coordination and reduce parallel systems,

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6426-630: Is widely credited with having hastened the reconstruction of western Europe after World War II, there have been doubts about the effectiveness of this aid. G. A. Duncan in 1950 deplored the governmental character of Marshall Aid , arguing that private loans could have achieved the economic purposes more efficiently. He acknowledged that the provision of official aid also had other – political – purposes. When US economic aid shifted from Europe to poorer countries – as initially signalled by President Truman in Point Four of his 1949 inauguration speech –

6579-552: The 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia forever changed the way in which governments and NGOs respond to international emergencies taking place within conflict situations and raised disturbing questions about the relationship between humanitarian agencies and host governments. There is wide agreement that aid alone is not enough to lift developing countries out of poverty and that it is not the most powerful potential instrument for promoting this end. The debates on aid effectiveness are over

6732-737: The Bretton Woods System (1944). In 1943 at the Moscow Conference and Tehran Conference , plans to establish joint institutions for a post-war world and Europe increasingly became a part of the agenda. This led to a decision at the Yalta Conference in 1944 to form a European Advisory Commission , later replaced by the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Allied Control Council , following

6885-467: The Copenhagen criteria for candidate members to join the EU were agreed upon in June 1993. The expansion of the EU introduced a new level of complexity and discord. In 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU. In 2002, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 of the member states. Since then, the eurozone has increased to encompass 20 countries. The euro currency became

7038-669: The Council of Europe , an international organisation independent of the EU and based in Strasbourg. The European Commission acts both as the EU's executive arm , responsible for the day-to-day running of the EU, and also the legislative initiator , with the sole power to propose laws for debate. The commission is 'guardian of the Treaties' and is responsible for their efficient operation and policing. It has 27 European commissioners for different areas of policy, one from each member state, though commissioners are bound to represent

7191-547: The Court of Justice of the European Union , the European Central Bank and the European Court of Auditors . Competence in scrutinising and amending legislation is shared between the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, while executive tasks are performed by the European Commission and in a limited capacity by the European Council (not to be confused with the aforementioned Council of

7344-757: The European Parliamentary Union (EPU). Aristide Briand —who was Prime Minister of France , a follower of the Paneuropean Union, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate for the Locarno Treaties —delivered a widely recognized speech at the League of Nations in Geneva on 5 September 1929 for a federal Europe to secure Europe and settle the historic Franco-German enmity . With large-scale war being waged in Europe once again in

7497-707: The European integration project or the construction of Europe ( French : la construction européenne ). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from the European Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of the Schuman Declaration . The European Union operates through

7650-708: The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) mandated at the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in 2011. GPEDC endorsed the prior "aid effectiveness" principles and commitments, and added others more widely concerned with development cooperation. Another global partnership that follows the "effective development cooperation" approach is UHC2030 (the International Health Partnership for Universal Health Care 2030), formerly known simply as

7803-683: The Grand Bargain (humanitarian reform) in 2016. In this workstream, aid organisations and donors committed to "publish timely, transparent, harmonised and open high-quality data on humanitarian funding within two years of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul" and participants in the workstream chose IATI as a common standard for that. On 8 June 2011, the Make Aid Transparent Campaign [2]

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7956-655: The Hertenstein Congress of the Union of European Federalists , one of the then founded and later constituting members of the European Movement . One month later, the French Union was installed by the new Fourth French Republic to direct the decolonization of its colonies so that they would become parts of a European community. By 1947 a growing rift between the western Allied Powers and

8109-675: The International Health Partnership (or IHP+). See below for more details of the aid effectiveness principles and practices advocated by this movement and its component partnerships. Widespread famine in Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) led to greater NGO involvement in events like the Biafran airlift being attempted for the first time. The way in which aid was allocated during

8262-473: The Lisbon Treaty entered into force and reformed many aspects of the EU. In particular, it changed the legal structure of the European Union, merging the EU three pillars system into a single legal entity provisioned with a legal personality , created a permanent president of the European Council , the first of which was Herman Van Rompuy , and strengthened the position of the high representative of

8415-657: The Marshall Plan , which led to the Soviets creating Comecon in response. The ensuing Hague Congress of May 1948 was a pivotal moment in European integration, as it led to the creation of the European Movement International , the College of Europe and most importantly to the foundation of the Council of Europe on 5 May 1949 (which is now Europe Day ). The Council of Europe was one of

8568-566: The Millennium Development Goals in mind for these furnish real metrics for providing basic needs. The "actual transfer of funds must be based on rigorous, country-specific plans that are developed through open and consultative processes, backed by good governance in the recipient countries, as well as careful planning and evaluation." European Union in Europe  (dark grey) The European Union ( EU )

8721-548: The Monterrey Consensus . There, the international community agreed to increase its funding for development—but acknowledged that more money alone was not enough. Donors and developing countries alike wanted to know that aid would be used as effectively as possible. They wanted it to play its optimum role in helping poor countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals , the set of targets agreed by 192 countries in 2000 which aimed to halve world poverty by 2015. Over

8874-625: The Soviet Union became evident as a result of the rigged 1947 Polish legislative election , which constituted an open breach of the Yalta Agreement . March of that year saw two important developments. First was the signing of the Treaty of Dunkirk between France and the United Kingdom . The treaty assured mutual assistance in the event of future military aggression against either nation. Though it officially named Germany as

9027-484: The Soviet Union's sphere of influence. For greater clarity in future, the committee attempted to distill the purposes of US aid into four: The first of these aid drivers could be seen, during the Cold War, as part of a competition with the Soviet Union to win influence. But aid was often observed to fail in this respect; for instance, in the 1950s and 1960s Egypt and Afghanistan took aid from both sides without making

9180-886: The United Nations Development Program , and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation . After a period of widespread engagement of donors, governments, and NGOs and consultation on the information to be shared and how it should be shared, the IATI Standard was agreed on 9 February 2011 in Paris. At the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, held in Busan , Korea in November 2011, the initiative received continued support. In

9333-415: The United Nations Development Programme ; James Musconi , the Rwandan finance minister; and Kumi Naidoo , then president of CIVICUS . Alexander recommended creating a common set of openness standards by which donors can be judged. 14 international donors pledged to expand transparency as a result, and an agreement was reached to develop a common format for the release of aid information by 2010. A statement

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9486-457: The monetary branch of the European Union, the prime component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks. It is one of the world's most important central banks . The ECB Governing Council makes monetary policy for the Eurozone and the European Union, administers the foreign exchange reserves of EU member states, engages in foreign exchange operations, and defines the intermediate monetary objectives and key interest rate of

9639-586: The world population in 2020, EU member states generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around US$ 16.6   trillion in 2022, constituting approximately one sixth of global nominal GDP . Additionally, all EU states except Bulgaria have a very high Human Development Index according to the United Nations Development Programme . Its cornerstone, the Customs Union , paved the way to establishing an internal single market based on standardised legal framework and legislation that applies in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where

9792-434: The 1930s and becoming World War II , the question of what to fight against and what for, had to be agreed on. A first agreement was the Declaration of St James's Palace of 1941, when Europe's resistance gathered in London. This was expanded on by the 1941 Atlantic Charter , establishing the Allies and their common goals, inciting a new wave of global international institutions like the United Nations ( founded 1945 ) or

9945-434: The 20 EU member states that have fully implemented the economic and monetary union and use the euro currency . Through the Common Foreign and Security Policy , the union has developed a role in external relations and defence . It maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations , the World Trade Organization , the G7 and the G20 . Due to its global influence,

10098-415: The CJEU the power for consistent application of EU law across the EU as a whole. The court also acts as an administrative and constitutional court between the other EU institutions and the Member States and can annul or invalidate unlawful acts of EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies. The General Court is a constituent court of the European Union. It hears actions taken against the institutions of

10251-417: The Council of the European Union and the "Council of Ministers", its former title), forms one half of the EU's legislature. It consists of a representative from each member state's government and meets in different compositions depending on the policy area being addressed . Notwithstanding its different configurations, it is considered to be one single body. In addition to the legislative functions, members of

10404-401: The ECB and the national central banks (NCBs) of all 27 member states of the European Union. The ESCB is not the monetary authority of the eurozone, because not all EU member states have joined the euro. The ESCB's objective is price stability throughout the European Union. Secondarily, the ESCB's goal is to improve monetary and financial cooperation between the Eurosystem and member states outside

10557-401: The EU administration by investigating complaints, as well as by proactively looking into broader systemic issues. The current Ombudsman is Emily O'Reilly . The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) is the prosecutory branch of the union with juridical personality, established under the Treaty of Lisbon between 23 of the 27 states of the EU following the method of enhanced cooperation. It

10710-482: The EU level by special interest groups is regulated to try to balance the aspirations of private initiatives with public interest decision-making process. The European Union had an agreed budget of €170.6  billion in 2022. The EU had a long-term budget of €1,082.5 billion for the period 2014–2020, representing 1.02% of the EU-28's GNI. In 1960, the budget of the European Community was 0.03 per cent of GDP. Of this, €54bn subsidised agriculture enterprise , €42bn

10863-420: The EU, which together with the Council of the European Union is tasked with amending and approving the European Commission's proposals. 705 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are directly elected by EU citizens every five years on the basis of proportional representation . MEPs are elected on a national basis and they sit according to political groups rather than their nationality. Each country has

11016-607: The EU. The ECB Executive Board enforces the policies and decisions of the Governing Council, and may direct the national central banks when doing so. The ECB has the exclusive right to authorise the issuance of euro banknotes . Member states can issue euro coins , but the volume must be approved by the ECB beforehand. The bank also operates the TARGET2 payments system. The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) consists of

11169-469: The European Community and the EU, and then made amendments to those founding treaties. These are power-giving treaties which set broad policy goals and establish institutions with the necessary legal powers to implement those goals. These legal powers include the ability to enact legislation which can directly affect all member states and their inhabitants. The EU has legal personality , with

11322-490: The European Council. The other 25 commissioners are subsequently appointed by the Council of the European Union in agreement with the nominated president. The 27 commissioners as a single body are subject to approval (or otherwise) by a vote of the European Parliament . All commissioners are first nominated by the government of the respective member state. The council, as it is now simply called (also called

11475-669: The European Recovery Program called Next Generation EU (NGEU). On 24 February 2022, after massing on the borders of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces undertook an attempt for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The European Union imposed heavy sanctions on Russia and agreed on a pooled military aid package to Ukraine for lethal weapons funded via the European Peace Facility off-budget instrument. Next Generation EU ( NGEU )

11628-500: The European Treaties but were developed by the Court of Justice itself over the 1960s, apparently under the influence of its then most influential judge, Frenchman Robert Lecourt . The question whether the secondary law enacted by the EU has a comparable status in relation to national legislation, has been a matter of debate among legal scholars. The European Union is based on a series of treaties . These first established

11781-465: The European Union by individuals and member states, although certain matters are reserved for the Court of Justice. Decisions of the General Court can be appealed to the Court of Justice, but only on a point of law. Prior to the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009, it was known as the Court of First Instance. The European Central Bank (ECB) is one of the institutions of

11934-540: The European Union has been described by some scholars as an emerging superpower . The EU was established, along with its citizenship , when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993, and was incorporated as an international legal juridical person upon entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 . Its beginnings can be traced to the Inner Six states (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg,

12087-543: The European Union understood that coal and steel were the two industries essential for waging war, and believed that by tying their national industries together, a future war between their nations became much less likely. In parallel with Schuman, the Pleven Plan of 1951 tried but failed to tie the institutions of the developing European community under the European Political Community , which

12240-410: The European Union ). It is more integrated than a traditional confederation of states because the general level of government widely employs qualified majority voting in some decision-making among the member states, rather than relying exclusively on unanimity. It is less integrated than a federal state because it is not a state in its own right: sovereignty continues to flow 'from the bottom up', from

12393-481: The European Union is formally called the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and consists of two courts: the Court of Justice and the General Court . The Court of Justice is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law . As a part of the CJEU, it is tasked with interpreting EU law and ensuring its uniform application across all EU member states under Article 263 of

12546-554: The European Union). The monetary policy of the eurozone is determined by the European Central Bank. The interpretation and the application of EU law and the treaties are ensured by the Court of Justice of the European Union. The EU budget is scrutinised by the European Court of Auditors. There are also a number of ancillary bodies which advise the EU or operate in a specific area. The Union's executive branch

12699-531: The Eurozone countries , a surge in asylum seekers in 2015 , and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU . A referendum in the UK on its membership of the European Union was held in 2016, with 51.9 per cent of participants voting to leave. The UK formally notified the European Council of its decision to leave on 29 March 2017, initiating the formal withdrawal procedure for leaving the EU ; following extensions to

12852-584: The German surrender and the Potsdam Agreement in 1945. By the end of the war, European integration became seen as an antidote to the extreme nationalism that had caused the war. On 19 September 1946, in a much recognized speech, Winston Churchill , speaking at the University of Zürich , reiterated his calls since 1930 for a "European Union" and "Council of Europe", coincidentally parallel to

13005-808: The Netherlands, and West Germany ) at the start of modern European integration in 1948, and to the Western Union , the International Authority for the Ruhr , the European Coal and Steel Community , the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community , which were established by treaties. These increasingly amalgamated bodies grew, with their legal successor the EU, both in size through

13158-490: The Paris Declaration suggests that aid recipient countries lay down a set of national development priorities and that aid donors fit in with those plans. Laurie Garret, author of the article "The Challenge of Global Health" points out that the current aid and resources are being targeted at very specific, high-profile diseases, rather than at general public health . Aid is "stovepiped" towards narrow, short-term goals relating to particular programs or diseases such as increasing

13311-541: The Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The Court was established in 1952, and is based in Luxembourg . It is composed of one judge per member state – currently 27 – although it normally hears cases in panels of three, five or fifteen judges. The Court has been led by president Koen Lenaerts since 2015. The CJEU is the highest court of the European Union in matters of Union law . Its case-law provides that EU law has supremacy over any national law that

13464-430: The Union as a whole, though the exact delimitation has on occasions become a subject of scholarly or legal disputes. In certain fields, members have awarded exclusive competence and exclusive mandate to the Union. These are areas in which member states have entirely renounced their own capacity to enact legislation. In other areas, the EU and its member states share the competence to legislate. While both can legislate,

13617-614: The Union to be ready for the new members. In May 2024, concerns rise, that the outcome of the elections in June, can undermine some of the crucial policies of the EU in the domain of environment, diplomacy, economy . The war in Ukraine by creating inflation, lowering life level created a possibility of strong changes in the 2024 elections. Since the end of World War II , sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty ) in an increasing number of areas, in

13770-614: The Western Allies in 1949 to regulate the coal and steel industries of the Ruhr area in West Germany. Backed by the Marshall Plan with large funds coming from the United States since 1948, the ECSC became a milestone organisation, enabling European economic development and integration and being the origin of the main institutions of the EU such as the European Commission and Parliament . Founding fathers of

13923-493: The accessions of a further 22 states from 1973 to 2013, and in power through acquisitions of policy areas. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize . The United Kingdom became the only member state to leave the EU , in 2020; ten countries are aspiring or negotiating to join it . Internationalism and visions of European unity had existed since well before the 19th century, but gained particularly as

14076-593: The accumulation of successes reported by donor and implementing agencies in their projects and programs. Paul Mosley termed this the micro-macro paradox and offered three potential explanations: inaccurate measurement, fungibility, and "backwash" or negative side-effects of component aid projects. The micro-macro paradox has also been attributed to inadequate assessment practices. For example, conventional assessment techniques often over-emphasize inputs and outputs without taking sufficient account of societal impacts. The shortcomings of prevalent assessment practices have led to

14229-501: The aid, it is thought that it is more effective. Humanitarian aid is argued to often not reach those who are intended to receive it. For example, a report composed by the World Bank in 2006 stated that an estimated half of the funds donated towards health programs in sub-Saharan Africa did not reach the clinics and hospitals. Money is paid out to fake accounts, prices are increased for transport or warehousing, and drugs are sold to

14382-415: The attitudes of political responsibility needed to support democratisation; and feelings of international solidarity. Rostow later elaborated the "take-off" theory of development in his more famous work, "The Stages of Economic Growth" , in which he stated that greatly increased economic aid was needed in order to outrace the effects of population growth. In 1966, Hollis Chenery and Alan Strout published

14535-409: The average effectiveness of aid, but one in which pessimism in the late 20th century has seemed to yield to qualified optimism in the early 21st century. See the table in the sub-section on "Major econometric studies and their findings", below. It must be borne in mind that such econometric studies face many problems. One challenge for assessing the effectiveness of aid is that aid is intended to serve

14688-624: The basis that recipient governments make economic changes as well as democratic changes. It is against this background that the international aid effectiveness movement began taking shape in the late 1990s as donor governments and aid agencies began working together to improve effectiveness. Aid effectiveness became more strongly recognized as a global multilateral objective in 2002 at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, which established

14841-576: The beginning of the Cold War . The year 1948 marked the beginning of the institutionalised modern European integration . In March 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed, establishing the Western Union (WU), followed by the International Authority for the Ruhr . Furthermore, the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), the predecessor of the OECD, was also founded in 1948 to manage

14994-597: The black market. Another example is in Ghana, where approximately 80% of donations do not go towards their intended purposes. This type of corruption only adds to the criticism of aid, as it is not helping those who need it, and may be adding to the problem. Only about one fifth of U.S. aid goes to countries classified by the OECD as 'least developed.' This "pro-rich" trend is not unique to the United States. According to Collier, "the middle income countries get aid because they are of much more commercial and political interest than

15147-409: The continent on the ground level, thus building from the bottom-up as opposed to the top-down approach aid takes. Many econometric studies have attempted to establish broad conclusions about aid, using regression analysis on a panel of recipient countries (seeing if their differing amounts and timings of aid received could be correlated with development indicators). These have created a mixed picture on

15300-416: The council also have executive responsibilities, such as the development of a Common Foreign and Security Policy and the coordination of broad economic policies within the Union. The Presidency of the council rotates between member states, with each holding it for six months. Beginning on 1 July 2024, the position is held by Hungary. The European Parliament is one of three legislative institutions of

15453-554: The countries of Central and Eastern Europe . Assessing the progress of European integration the Messina Conference was held in 1955, ordering the Spaak report , which in 1956 recommended the next significant steps of European integration. In 1957, Belgium , France , Italy , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome , which created the European Economic Community (EEC) and established

15606-643: The data transfer standard in the AidData database. As of September 2024, the IATI Registry shows that 1690 organizations have published to the IATI standard. As of December 2015, 47% of European Union aid flows are recorded on IATI. James Coe, a senior advocacy officer at Publish What You Fund , wrote in August 2016 that there are over 35,000 agriculture-related activities in the IATI Registry, but "only

15759-436: The degree of significance of aid's effects, the extent of its unfavourable effects, and the relative effectiveness of different kinds of aid. British economist P. T. Bauer argued that aid did more harm than good, notably in his books "Dissent on Development" (1972) and "Reality and Rhetoric" (1984). The main harmful effect was that aid channelled resources through governments, enabling inefficient state planning and producing

15912-461: The donor country. Eritrea discovered that it would be cheaper to build its network of railways with local expertise and resources rather than to spend aid money on foreign consultants and engineers. US law, backed by strong farm interests, requires food aid be spent on buying food from the US rather than locally, and, as a result, half of what is spent is used on transport . As a result, tying aid

16065-419: The donor country. It refers to aid tied to goods and services supplied exclusively by donor country businesses or agencies. Tied aid increases the cost of assistance and has the tendency of making donors to focus more on the commercial advancement of their countries than what developing countries need. There are many ways aid can be designed to pursue the commercial objectives of donors. One of such pervasive means

16218-427: The donors' as well at the recipients' level, is often poor, incomplete and difficult to compare with other data, and beneficiaries' feedback and formal project evaluations are rare. Aid is predictable when partner countries can be confident about the amount and the timing of aid disbursement. Not being predictable has a cost: one study assessed the deadweight loss associated with volatility at an average of 10% to 20% of

16371-641: The elimination of state subsidies and the privatization of state services . For example, the World Bank presses poor nations to eliminate subsidies for fertilizer even while many farmers cannot afford them at market prices. In the case of Malawi , almost five million of its 13 million people used to need emergency food aid. However, after the government changed policy and subsidies for fertilizer and seed were introduced, farmers produced record-breaking corn harvests in 2006 and 2007 as production leaped to 3.4 million in 2007 from 1.2 million in 2005, making Malawi

16524-428: The elite (pp. 49–52). Noted Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo has been a fierce opponent to development aid, and calls it “the single worst decision of modern developmental politics”. Her 2009 book, Dead Aid describes how aid has encouraged kleptocracies, corruption, aid-dependency and a series of detrimental economic effects and vicious downward spirals of development in Africa. She argues that foreign aid provides

16677-540: The ensuing détente led to establishment of a first truly pan-European body, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), predecessor of the modern Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). In 1979, the first direct elections to the European Parliament were held. Greece joined in 1981. In 1985, Greenland left the Communities , following a dispute over fishing rights. During

16830-456: The entire cabinet, the final say in accepting or rejecting a candidate submitted for a given portfolio by a member state, and oversees the commission's permanent civil service. After the President, the most prominent commissioner is the high representative of the union for foreign affairs and security policy, who is ex-officio a vice-president of the European Commission and is also chosen by

16983-481: The eurozone. The European Court of Auditors (ECA) is the auditory branch of the European Union. It was established in 1975 in Luxembourg in order to improve EU financial management. It has 27 members (1 from each EU member-state) supported by approximately 800 civil servants. The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) is the EU's civil service recruitment body and operates its selection of candidates via generalist and specialist competitions. Each institution

17136-536: The existing models. In the 1980s and 1990s NGOs played a greater part in international aid. After the end of the Cold War, the declared focus of official aid began to move further towards the alleviation of poverty and the promotion of development. The countries that were in the most need and poverty became more of a priority. Once the Cold War ended, Western donors were able to enforce aid conditionality better because they no longer had geopolitical interests in recipient countries. This allowed donors to condition aid on

17289-472: The first institutions to bring the sovereign states of (then only Western) Europe together, raising great hopes and fevered debates in the following two years for further European integration. It has since been a broad forum to further cooperation and shared issues, achieving for example the European Convention on Human Rights in 1950. Essential for the actual birth of the institutions of the EU

17442-410: The following nine years, a process punctuated by four high level forums on aid effectiveness (Rome 2003, Paris 2005, Accra 2008 and Busan 2011) consolidated a set of recognised good practices in aid effectiveness, and a framework for monitoring them. In 2011 the dominant global agenda on "aid effectiveness" was subsumed in a broader movement for "effective development cooperation". This was embodied in

17595-426: The form of investment funds could promote the "take-off" of economies into self-reliant growth. It further suggested that this economic transformation, channeled properly, could produce a free and democratic type of society by providing: a constructive outlet for nationalism; a social solvent by interesting the urban elites in a dynamic agricultural sector; a stimulus for the emergence of authentic leaders; incentives for

17748-482: The form of loan repayments. Next, subtract the aid given to middle income countries, $ 16 billion. The remainder, $ 43 billion, is the amount that developing countries received in 2002. But only $ 12 billion went to low-income countries in a form that could be deemed budget support for basic needs. When aid is given to the Least Developed Countries who have good governments and strategic plans for

17901-440: The future. Unconditional cash transfers , for example, appear to be an effective intervention for reducing extreme poverty, while at the same time also improving health and education outcomes. The World Food Program (WFP), the biggest non-governmental distributor of food, announced that it will begin distributing cash and vouchers instead of food in some areas, which Josette Sheeran , the WFP's executive director, described as

18054-413: The general aim is usually assumed to be boosting the development of recipient countries and, hence, the well-being of people living in them. But " development " and "well-being" are complex and slippery concepts. The most popular summary indicator for a country's development is probably average national income per head in its population, but this indicator does not capture inequalities of wealth and power, or

18207-457: The global market to do so. Aid is often fungible, meaning that aided activities which appear to be successful may be filling a role that would have been covered anyway by local resources; the effect of the aid is thus only to release those local resources for other purposes, which may not be so desirable. A major proportion of aid from donor nations is tied , mandating that a receiving nation spend on products and expertise originating only from

18360-531: The immediate effect. With more players, aid became less predictable, less transparent and more volatile. Fragmentation means an increase in costs for recipient countries, as government offices are forced to divert administrative resources to cope with requests and meetings with donors Decades of development have shown that if countries are to become less dependent on aid, they must follow a bottom-up approach, where they determine their own priorities and rely on their own systems to deliver that aid. Information, at

18513-487: The instrument is worth € 750 billion . NGEU will operate from 2021 to 2026, and will be tied to the regular 2021–2027 budget of the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The comprehensive NGEU and MFF packages are projected to reach €1824.3 billion. Preparing the Union for a new great enlargement is a political priority for the Union, with the goal of achieving over 35 member states by 2030. Institutional and budgetary reforms are being discussed in order to

18666-425: The interests of the EU as a whole rather than their home state. The leader of the 27 is the president of the European Commission (presently Ursula von der Leyen for 2019–2024, reelected for the 2024-2029 term), proposed by the European Council , following and taking into account the result of the European elections, and is then elected by the European Parliament. The President retains, as the leader responsible for

18819-418: The law and actual practice in business regulation, workers who do not even show up, doctors that do not doctor, teachers who do not teach.” In the view of James Shikwati , aid in Africa sustains political elites who implement a colonial or neo-colonial agenda of subsidy and distortion of markets which holds African countries back. Tied aid is defined as project aid contracted by source to private firms in

18972-481: The main functions that aid is supposed to have), or it might be more detailed (considering relative degrees of success between different types of aid in differing circumstances). Questions of aid effectiveness have been highly contested by academics, commentators and practitioners: there is a large literature on the subject. Econometric studies in the late 20th century often found the average effectiveness of aid to be minimal or even negative. Such studies have appeared on

19125-486: The member states can only legislate to the extent to which the EU has not. In other policy areas, the EU can only co-ordinate, support and supplement member state action but cannot enact legislation with the aim of harmonising national laws. That a particular policy area falls into a certain category of competence is not necessarily indicative of what legislative procedure is used for enacting legislation within that policy area. Different legislative procedures are used within

19278-461: The number of people receiving anti-retroviral treatment, and increasing distribution of bed nets. These are band aid solutions to larger problems, as it takes healthcare systems and infrastructure to create significant change. Donors lack the understanding that effort should be focused on broader measures that affect general well-being of the population, and substantial change will take generations to achieve. Aid often does not provide maximum benefit to

19431-404: The objective of promoting the economic development and welfare of developing countries. Such motives – which may involve strategic alliances, diplomatic trade-offs, commercial advantages and other political benefits – are nowadays usually discussed as obstacles to aid effectiveness rather than alternative aims. In the first decade of the 20th century, "aid effectiveness" was the declared focus of

19584-459: The prime indicator of aid effectiveness. At this time Chenery and Strout pointed to the Philippines, Taiwan, Greece and Israel as examples of countries that seemed to have achieved self-sustaining growth rates with the help of aid. The end of the post-war boom – marked particularly by the oil crisis of 1973 – was a watershed in attitudes to aid effectiveness, as it forced a reappraisal of

19737-523: The process, the UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020, though most areas of EU law continued to apply to the UK for a transition period which lasted until 31 December 2020. The early 2020s saw Denmark abolishing one of its three opt-outs and Croatia adopting the Euro . After the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic , the EU leaders agreed for the first time to create common debt to finance

19890-470: The recipient, and reflects the interests of the donor. Furthermore, consider the breakdown, where aid goes and for what purposes. In 2002, total gross foreign aid to all developing countries was $ 76 billion. Dollars that do not contribute to a country's ability to support basic needs interventions are subtracted. Subtract $ 6 billion for debt relief grants. Subtract $ 11 billion, which is the amount developing countries paid to developed nations in that year in

20043-443: The release of the "IATI Validator" which enables publishers to confirm that their data is accessible and of good quality. Aid effectiveness#Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, Accra, September 2008 Aid effectiveness is the degree of success or failure of international aid ( development aid or humanitarian aid ). Concern with aid effectiveness might be at a high level of generality (whether aid on average fulfils

20196-473: The run up to the forum, over 19 donors, including 12 government and multilateral donors, and a number of small NGOs, started publishing information on their aid projects using the IATI Standard [1] . In October 2013, the IATI received a significant support when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would join the initiative. Further support came from the workstream for greater transparency of

20349-408: The same category of competence, and even with the same policy area. The distribution of competences in various policy areas between member states and the union is divided into the following three categories: The European Union has seven principal decision-making bodies, its institutions : the European Parliament , the European Council , the Council of the European Union , the European Commission ,

20502-612: The same year, the Schengen Agreement paved the way for the creation of open borders without passport controls between most member states and some non-member states. In 1986, the Single European Act was signed. Portugal and Spain joined in 1986. In 1990, after the fall of the Eastern Bloc , the former East Germany became part of the communities as part of a reunified Germany . The European Union

20655-540: The second-largest reserve currency in the world. In 2004, the EU saw its biggest enlargement to date when Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia , Hungary , Latvia , Lithuania , Malta , Poland , Slovakia , and Slovenia joined the union. In 2007, Bulgaria and Romania became EU members. Later that year, Slovenia adopted the euro, followed by Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014, and Lithuania in 2015. On 1 December 2009,

20808-449: The several peoples of the separate member states, rather than from a single undifferentiated whole. This is reflected in the fact that the member states remain the 'masters of the Treaties', retaining control over the allocation of competences to the union through constitutional change (thus retaining so-called Kompetenz-kompetenz ); in that they retain control of the use of armed force; they retain control of taxation; and in that they retain

20961-477: The standard are encouraged to submit meta-data to the IATI Registry, which lists the available data. The IATI Standard succeeds two previous standardisation efforts for aid activity information: the Common Exchange Format for Development Activities CEFDA (developed from 1991), and International Development Markup Language IDML (developed from 1998) and used by Development Gateway as part of

21114-473: The states have agreed to act as one. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market; enact legislation in justice and home affairs; and maintain common policies on trade , agriculture , fisheries and regional development . Passport controls have been abolished for travel within the Schengen Area . The eurozone is a group composed of

21267-491: The strategic framework was one of building a "free world" in the face of communist threat. In the 1950s, official US development assistance was mobilized alongside military aid within the Mutual Security Program . A 1957 Senate Special Committee report admitted it was impossible to prove how effective US aid since World War II had been, but considered that, without it, several countries might have been lost to

21420-525: The structural characteristics of the country's institutions and economy. Since the 1990s the prime purpose of aid has widely been seen as poverty reduction, but this, too, can be interpreted in a variety of ways (How soon? How sustainable? What level?). Such ambiguities should be clarified or at least borne in mind when considering aid effectiveness. Under the main international definition of aid – Official Development Assistance – any self-seeking motives of aid donors are supposed to be strictly subordinate to

21573-493: The three communities, which were collectively referred to as the European Communities . Jean Rey presided over the first merged commission ( Rey Commission ). In 1973, the communities were enlarged to include Denmark (including Greenland), Ireland, and the United Kingdom . Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum . The Ostpolitik and

21726-530: The tiny markets and powerlessness of the bottom billion." What this means is that, at the most basic level, aid is not targeting the most extreme poverty. The logistics in which the delivery of humanitarian occurs can be problematic. For example, an earthquake in 2003 in Bam, Iran left tens of thousands of people in need of disaster zone aid. Although aid was flown in rapidly, regional belief systems, cultural backgrounds and even language seemed to have been omitted as

21879-487: The union for foreign affairs and security policy (presently Josep Borrell ) also takes part in its meetings. Described by some as the union's "supreme political leadership", it is actively involved in the negotiation of treaty changes and defines the EU's policy agenda and strategies. Its leadership role involves solving disputes between member states and the institutions, and to resolving any political crises or disagreements over controversial issues and policies. It acts as

22032-473: The union for foreign affairs and security policy . In 2012, the EU received the Nobel Peace Prize for having "contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy, and human rights in Europe". In 2013, Croatia became the 28th EU member. From the beginning of the 2010s, the cohesion of the European Union has been tested by several issues, including a debt crisis in some of

22185-557: The very influential one by Burnside and Dollar (1997, 2000) – could not survive defining key terms in other plausible ways. Moreover, different objectives have different implications for the time-scale in which results should be sought. Varying sectors and modalities of aid have different effects, as do the contextual factors in recipient countries. However, increasingly sophisticated analyses have made progress in accounting for these complicated effects. Econometric studies frequently show more pessimistic results than might be expected from

22338-547: The whole to yield more affirmative results in the early 21st century, but the picture is complex and far from clear in many respects. Many prescriptions have been made about how to improve aid effectiveness. In 2003–2011 there existed a global movement in the name of aid effectiveness, around four high level forums on aid effectiveness . These elaborated a set of good practices concerning aid administration co-ordination and relations between donors and recipient countries. The Paris Declaration and other results of these forums embodied

22491-432: Was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty —whose main architects were Horst Köhler , Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand —came into force on 1 November 1993. The treaty also gave the name European Community to the EEC, even if it was referred to as such before the treaty. With further enlargement planned to include the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Cyprus and Malta ,

22644-474: Was in turn reformed in 1961 into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and its membership was extended to states outside of Europe, the United States and Canada. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power. Nevertheless, in 1965 an agreement was reached, and on 1 July 1967 the Merger Treaty created a single set of institutions for

22797-521: Was issued by the signatories, which formally accepted the policies set forth in the Accra Agenda for Action and agreed to form the IATI. The text of the statement suggests that aid donors should: The statement was agreed to by a variety of international donors, including the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland , Irish Aid , the World Bank , the UK's Department for International Development ,

22950-525: Was launched, supported by over 60 organisations [3] Archived 2011-06-13 at the Wayback Machine from North and South. The IATI Standard combines a list of the information that donors publishing data as part of the Initiative should seek to publish, along with an XML schema and collection of code lists for representing that information as structured open data . Donors publishing data using

23103-474: Was spent on transport , building and the environment, €16bn on education and research , €13bn on welfare, €20bn on foreign and defence policy, €2bn in finance , €2bn in energy , €1.5bn in communications, and €13bn in administration. In November 2020, two members of the union, Hungary and Poland, blocked approval to the EU's budget at a meeting in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper), citing

23256-460: Was the Schuman Declaration on 9 May 1950 (the day after the fifth Victory in Europe Day ) and the decision by six nations (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, West Germany and Italy) to follow Schuman and draft the Treaty of Paris . This treaty was created in 1952 the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which was built on the International Authority for the Ruhr , installed by

23409-788: Was to include the also proposed European Defence Community , an alternative to West Germany joining NATO which was established in 1949 under the Truman Doctrine . In 1954 the Modified Brussels Treaty transformed the Western Union into the Western European Union (WEU). West Germany eventually joined both the WEU and NATO in 1955, prompting the Soviet Union to form the Warsaw Pact in 1955 as an institutional framework for its military domination in

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