Has European policy coherence for development (PCD) progressed in recent years? Is the European Union taking into better account the goal of reducing world poverty in all of the policies it implements, as Article 208 of the Lisbon Treaty stipulates? CONCORD (the European confederation of development and relief NGOs) recently made public its conclusions in a report published on 7 November, a few days before the release of the European Commission’s report. While some progress is noted, in particular within the European Parliament with the nomination of a standing rapporteur for PCD, much remains to be done. Among the subjects addressed, food security occupies a choice place and incoherencies are numerous in this area. For example, not one word on PCD in the Commission’s proposals regarding the CAP after 2013. Nothing to ensure that the subsidies paid directly or indirectly for exported European products do not harm agricultural systems in developing countries and smallholder farms in particular... The list of examples is long! The Commission’s next report on PCD, its CAP-related proposals, its next communication on trade and development, etc. are as many opportunities for the European Parliament to reaffirm its determination to promote the consistency of Europe’s policies with development.

http://coherence.concordeurope.org/

On 23 June 2011, the European Parliament adopted a report on the CAP towards 2020. Unlike the Commission’s proposals, its Article 66 “Calls for the EU to ensure consistency between the CAP and its development and trade policies; in particular urges the EU to be attentive to the situation in developing countries and not jeopardise food production capacity and long-term food security in those countries and the ability of their populations to feed themselves, while respecting the principle of Policy Coherence for Development (PCD); considers, therefore, that EU trade agreements on agriculture should not hamper markets in the least developed countries.”

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2011-0297+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

In Bangladesh, milk production contributes to the incomes of approximately seven million people. The country could potentially meet its consumers’ needs. Developing production would also create jobs and thereby reduce poverty. However, low-cost powdered milk imports impede development of the commodity chain. The EU provides 20% to 50% of the imported milk depending on the year, and therefore the direct and indirect subsidies that the exportation of this product receives have a non-negligible share of responsibility for this situation, as ActionAid Denmark indicates in a report published in September 2011.

http://www.alimenterre.org/sites/www.cfsi.asso.fr/files/milking-the-poor.pdf

The number of undernourished people has grown while their proportion compared to the total population has dropped, indicate the authors (International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe) of this report. But we are very far from attaining the Millennium Development Goals set by the international community in 2000, one of which is to considerably reduce the proportion of people suffering from hunger between 1990 and 2015. The global hunger index has only dropped from a score of 19.7% in 1990 to 14.6% in 2011, only four years from the deadline. Worse, most of this drop took place before the MDGs were adopted!

http://www.ifpri.org/publication/2011-global-hunger-index

ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Lomé (21-23 November 2011)

African and European civil society invites the members of parliament
to a lunch and discussion session!

Location: ECO-BANK, ACP room (Auditorium)
French-English translation provided

Monday, 21 November 2011, 1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.

Presentation of CONCORD’s 2011 “Spotlight on EU Policy Coherence for Development” report, emphasizing European agriculture, trade and migration policies, with Salif Foulani Sissoko (Mali), Pascal Erard (France), Laust Leth Gregersen (Denmark) and Gérard Karlshausen (Belgium), moderated by Lars Bosselmann (Germany).

Tuesday, 22 November 2011, 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Discover the dishes and flavours of Togo and listen to farmers’ proposals on how to fight food crises, with the national platforms of farmers’ organizations in Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Conakry, Mali, Niger and Senegal, along with SOS Faim Belgium, CFSI (France) and Vredeseilanden (Belgium) under the chairmanship of Michèle Striffler, First Vice-President of the European Parliament’s Development Committee.