Green Paper on the Future of EU Budget

Green Paper on the Future of EU Budget Support Political economy at work 11 January 2011 European Commission

Background q q q q q MDGS, Paris, European Consensus etc Previous communication on ‘budget support’ (2000) Budget support: significant share of COM assistance (average 25% of 20032009 commitments) BUT: important questions about quality, value for money and impact of budget support Importance of EU coordination and implications of Lisbon Treaty and EEAS Purpose of Green Paper: to gather views from relevant stakeholders regarding the objectives and use of EU budget support in order to improve our approach to budget support. Scope: EU budget support to all regions NB: ‘EU’ refers to budget support managed by the European Commission. Green Paper: adopted 19 th October 2010 Consultations: extended to 31 January 2011

Outline of the Green Paper 1. 2. 3. 4. Introduction What is budget support? Budget support going forward – some key principles Budget support: key issues u u u u 5. Political governance and the role of political dialogue Role of policy dialogue, role of conditionality, links to performance and results Domestic and mutual accountability Programming of budget support and its coherence with other instruments Strengthening risk assessment and dealing with fraud and corruption Budget support in situations of fragility Growth, fiscal policy and mobilisation of domestic revenues. Conclusions and next steps

Relevance of Political Economy Analysis q Regarding Issues – relevant to most, especially: u u u u 1. Political dialogue and political conditionality 2. Conditionality overall 3. Supporting domestic accountability 4. Programming 5. Risk assessment 6. Fragile states 7. Tax and growth q Regarding Commission and Member States u u External: importance of sustaining MS and hence public support Internal: DEVCO, EEAS….