 | This weblog shares information on key ACP-EU programmes and events from Brussels relevant to agriculture and rural development in ACP countries. Date : [DATE] CTA Brussels Newsletter Main events in the week
- Main ACP-EU events for next week (16-22 November)
- The CTA Brussels Newsletter celebrates its 200th issue
- Our Video guest: Mr Jean-Philippe Rapp, International Media North South Forum
- CTA is recruiting a trainee
- Pro€Invest: new Website
- New issue of Partnership, CDE's electronic newsletter
- Mozambique election given clean bill of health by MEPs
- Climate change: 27 fail to reach agreement on burden sharing
- Harmonizing EU development assistance: implications of gender equality
- Step towards EU-funded flights for deportation of illegal immigrants
- Copenhagen conference: Dimas quizzed on EU strategy
- Concord: European policies are harming developing countries
- EU Support for Biofuels and Bioenergy
- Europe in the World
- EU support to increase energy access in ACP countries
- Sweden Ranks First in the 2009 Commitment to Development Index
- A new EC report unveils the costs of aid ineffectiveness
- European Union unveils internet innovation strategy
- FACT supports Cocoa Industry in the Pacific
- Banana deal emerging
- EU leaders approve outlines of diplomatic service
- Economic Partnership Agreements: Safeguards and trade remedies
- Main ACP-EU events for next week (16-22 November)
2009-11-13
European Parliament (Brussels): - 16 and 19 November: Committee meetings - 17-19 November: Political groups meetings EU Presidency (Brussels): - 17 November: Working Party on External Fisheries Policy - 18 November: Coreper I; Africa Working Party (COAFR); United Nations Working Party: CONUN - 19 November: Coreper I - 20 November: ACP Working Party; Coreper II ACP Secretariat (Brussels): 16-19 November: 90th Session of the ACP Council of Ministers
For more information please consult the calendar on our webpage http://brussels.cta.int/
European Parliament
EU Presidency
ACP Secretariat
- The CTA Brussels Newsletter celebrates its 200th issue
2009-11-13
The first Weblog Newsletter, on the main issues and events of importance for ACP-EU development, was launched in November 2004. This service is followed today by over 20,000 visitors per month and more than 3500 news items have been posted since we started. A further 5000 people are subscribed to our free electronic Newsletter, available in French and English. Last September, the site was revamped with some new features, including a weekly ‘Special Guest' video, the ability to share articles, an advanced search and improved links to the Brussels Briefings on development and an improved calendar. Follow us on Twitter (a quick way to see news on your mobile phone or through the web) @CTABrussels Thank you very much for your continued interest in the CTA Brussels Weblog. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome! Best regards, The Weblog Team
CTA Website
CTA Brussels Briefings
TwitterCTA
- Our Video guest: Mr Jean-Philippe Rapp, International Media North South Forum
2009-11-12 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : ACP-EU Trade, Aid effectiveness, Rural development, Environment, Archive, Food Security
Mr Jean-Philippe Rapp, Director of the International Media North South Forum, is our guest. On the occasion of his participation in the Brussels Development Briefing on the importance of media in the development of ACP countries, Mr. Rapp presented to us the International Media North South Forum, which for 25 years now provides a platform to discuss development issues at the global level and the main future challenges amongst television, radio and print media specialists. After being debated in September in Geneva, Switzerland, the theme of hunger is again the focus of discussions at the next International Forum on North-South Media which should be held in 2010 in Burkina Faso.
Interview
International Media North South Forum
Briefing Media and Development
- CTA is recruiting a trainee
2009-11-12
The CTA is recruting a trainee (Junior Research Assistant) for the Brussels Office . A one six month’s contract will be offered from 1st December 2009. This contract can be renewed once for a maximum of 6 months. Read details on requirements and how to apply in the note attached.
Read more on the CTA
Job_description_Trainee_3.pdf
- Pro€Invest: new Website
2009-11-12 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Archive
Pro€Invest launched its new website on 2 November. All information related to available tools of the Programme such as technical assistance will be easily accessible. New rubrics will also give you the opportunity to discover all activities and projects of intermediary and regional organizations that have worked with the Programme. Rubrics such as «Feedback on projects» and «News» will also give a particular online space to project owners for the promotion of their organization’s activities! Source: Pro€Invest
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- New issue of Partnership, CDE's electronic newsletter
2009-11-11 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Archive, Rural development
New issue of Partnership (n°104), CDE's electronic newsletter, presents a number of articles, among which the following: - European SMEs and ACP private sector : towards new partnerships ? - Platform to support Partnerships between Italian and ACP enterprises - The European Network and Competitiveness Clusters - The CDE network and SME access to finance - Central Africa : CDE commits to implementing ICT development programme - Organic farming : CDE supports pineapple production in Togo Source: CDE
Read the newsletter
Read more on CDE
- Mozambique election given clean bill of health by MEPs
2009-11-11 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Aid effectiveness
Mozambique in southeast Africa is one of the most beautiful countries in Africa, lying as it does on the Indian Ocean. However, political instability and civil war have blighted life for its 22 million people since independence. On 28 October it held its fourth Presidential and Parliamentary elections since multi-party democracy took hold in the 1990's. A group of MEPs took part in the EU's Election Observation Mission and found the election to be fair despite some logistical problems. Source: European Parliament
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EU Delegation to Mozambique
EU-Mozambique relations
- Climate change: 27 fail to reach agreement on burden sharing
2009-11-11 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Environment, Aid effectiveness
As expected, discussions at the European Council of 29 and 30 October ran aground on the issue of the EU’s contribution to helping developing countries tackle climate change. After two days of discussions the member states were still loath to commit funds. Finally, in spite of German reluctance, the 27 signalled their agreement with the Commission’s estimate that the cost of climate change adaptation in developing countries will reach about 100 billion Euros a year between now and 2020. However, there was no willingness to state how much the European Union will be putting on the table at the international negotiations or to be more specific about the 22 to 50 billion of the 100 billion which are to come from international public financing, despite a request to that effect from the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlands. Source: Euractiv
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Copenhagen conference
CTA Briefing on 'Climate Change'
- Harmonizing EU development assistance: implications of gender equality
2009-11-11 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Aid effectiveness, Rural development, Archive
In this publication, the author describes the global approaches to donor harmonisation as agreed in the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action. According to the declaration, Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors – including the EC and EU Member State DAC donors – committed themselves to enhance their aid effectiveness. They agreed on five principles to guide their actions, one of which was the principle of ‘harmonisation’. DAC donors agreed to ’harmonise’ their development assistance efforts. The stated aim, essentially, was to make aid collectively more effective by making it more efficient. Aid was considered to be ‘fragmented’, with duplicating efforts at country and sectoral level creating high ‘transaction costs’ – for donors, but also for partner countries. In other words: donors agreed to divide up the work. They would change who did what so that there would no longer be ‘darling’ and ‘orphan’ countries – some countries getting most of the aid, others little. They would spread their contributions within countries, with some donors moving out of ‘overpopulated’ sectors into other sectors that were prioritised by partner countries but had received little support. Source: Wide Network
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Read the paper
Gender and Development
- Step towards EU-funded flights for deportation of illegal immigrants
2009-11-11 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Archive, Aid effectiveness
On Friday 30 October the EU Council reached agreement on the joint funding of flights to remove illegal immigrants from EU countries. This decision, the first of its kind, came after a week of fierce controversy surrounding France’s repatriation of three Afghans. The French used the same flight as the British, who were also returning illegal immigrants to Kabul. In the conclusions of the summit the 27 member states called for, “A determined response based on firmness, solidarity and shared responsibility.” The next step will be in early 2010 when the Commission is to table a proposal examining the possibility of regular joint return flights funded by the EU agency Frontex. Commenting on the decision, Nicolas Sarkozy said he wished to see the EU “go further”. “I hope that one day we will see EU border police,” he added. Source: Euractiv
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EU Immigration policy
DG Freedom, Security and Justice
- Copenhagen conference: Dimas quizzed on EU strategy
2009-11-10 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Aid effectiveness, Environment
The challenges awaiting the EU at the forthcoming UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen were presented by Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas to MEPs of the Environment Committee on Wednesday. Members then quizzed the Commissioner on the financing and efficiency of new measures to combat climate change. Source: European Parliament
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Copenhagen conference
CTA Briefing on 'Climate Change'
- Concord: European policies are harming developing countries
2009-11-10 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Aid effectiveness, Archive, Rural development
Responding to the Commission’s Communication and report on Policy Coherence for Development, CONCORD released a report appealing for Europe to stop harming developing countries with its policies. The “Spotlight on Policy Coherence” report looks at the damaging impact that EU policies such as trade and agriculture are having on developing countries, effectively undoing all of the potential achievements of its development aid. Source: Concord
Read the report
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EC Communication
- EU Support for Biofuels and Bioenergy
2009-11-10 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Environment, Archive
This paper provides a description of the EU’s biofuel policies, set in the context of its overall policy framework on renewable and bioenergy, and their interface with the WTO legal system. Although undoubtedly influenced by concerns about security of energy supplies, and a wish to find alternative market outlets for European farmers, the EU’s policy for biofuels (defined in EU legislation as liquid and gaseous fuels for transport use) is associated closely with its more generic policies to promote bioenergy, which in legislative terms is embedded in its policy on renewable energy, part of its strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The EU’s strategy, and its implementation by the Member States, has been evolving for a number of years; but its current ambition is that by 2020 some 20 percent of its primary energy supplies should come from renewable resources (including bioenergy) and that, in each Member State, renewables (largely biofuels) should provide 10 percent of energy use for transport. It is up to the Member States to deliver on these obligations, in the framework of EU rules. Source: ICTSD
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DG Environment
EU strategy for biofuels
- Europe in the World
2009-11-10 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Aid effectiveness
The Routledge GARNET series, Europe in the World, provides a forum for innovative research and current debates emanating from the research community within the GARNET Network of Excellence "Global Governance, regionalisation and Regulation: The Role of the EU", a project supported by the 6th Research Framework Programme of the European Commission. The Routledge GARNET series will provide an outlet for research on a wide range of issues related to regulation in the context of regional and global governance, the representation and participation of the EU in global governance, and regionalism in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The book series aims to address the broad processes of governance, including the turn to governance in international relations, and in the political and social relations inherent in the different forms of regionalism. With a specific orientation shaped by the ‘Europe in the world’ concern of the network, this series goes beyond the traditional disciplinary boundaries to offer a more integrated and holistic set of literature that focuses on regulation, governance, and regional policy-building. The series embraces multi-disciplinary perspectives to cover questions of relevance to contemporary society, amidst the challenges to regional cooperation in dealing with poverty and human welfare, peace, security, and social justice. Source: European Commission
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Garnet Book Series
- EU support to increase energy access in ACP countries
2009-11-10 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Aid effectiveness, Archive
The European Commission announced the launch of a second phase of the ACP-EU Energy Facility under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) for the period 2009-2013. Following a first successful implementation phase, the European Union and the ACP Group of States agreed to set aside € 200 million to continue activities to improve access to sustainable and affordable energy services for the poor while contributing to the fight against climate change by focusing on renewable energy solutions and energy efficiency measures. Source: European Commission
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ACP-EU Energy Facility
European Development Fund
- Sweden Ranks First in the 2009 Commitment to Development Index
2009-11-09 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Aid effectiveness, Rural development, Food Security
For the first time since the Commitment to Development Index was published in 2003, Sweden ranks first in the annual assessment of wealthy countries' policies that boost prosperity in the developing world. Index architect David Roodman released the 2009 rankings at the European Development Days in Stockholm on October 22. Source: Center for Global Development
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Read more on the CDI
Articles on CDI
- A new EC report unveils the costs of aid ineffectiveness
2009-11-09 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Aid effectiveness, Rural development
Three to six billion Euros of European ODA is wasted each year due to the lack of implementation of existing aid effectiveness commitments. This is the main finding of the new report “Aid Effectiveness Agenda. Benefits of a European Approach” which has been released by the European Commission at the European Development Days in Stockholm. The report investigates the costs of five dimensions of aid ineffectiveness: the lack of division of labour, tied aid, volatility and unpredictability, and finally the cost incurred when recipient country public financial systems are not used and government ownership is weak. Source: Eurodad
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Read the whole report
Read more on Aid Effectiveness
- European Union unveils internet innovation strategy
2009-11-09 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : Archive
The European Union has outlined its vision of a better connected world, unveiling a new strategy designed to support innovation through investment. Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for information society and media, said in a speech Thursday that the internet has the power to make European systems smarter and more efficient across the board. Reding suggested that the internet could lead to lower emissions, better healthcare, and less congested roads, for example, if the information it contains is harnessed correctly and efficiently. The strategy is designed to boost European internet infrastructures, and Reding said that the EU will work with national governments and IT companies to build up a EUR 300m investment fund. The European Commission has already invested EUR 400m in more than 90 European projects under its ICT research programme, and will invest another EUR 200m a year until at least 2013. This latest announcement will contribute to the EC's plans to make Europe a leader in the research and rollout of future internet technologies needed to «smarten up" infrastructures, Reding said. Source: Information Policy
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DG Information Society and Media
- FACT supports Cocoa Industry in the Pacific
2009-11-09 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : ACP-EU Trade, Aid effectiveness, Rural development
The European Union-funded Facilitating Agricultural Commodity Trade (FACT) project has engaged with a local cocoa exporting company based in Honiara to support communities and provide an alternative source of livelihood. Direct Management Limited (DML) is one of the 14 enterprises the FACT project is supporting. By engaging with this company, the project aims to improve the entire cocoa supply chain in order to benefit the industry as a whole. The FACT project is managed within the Land Resource Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community with the goal of increasing agricultural and forestry trade within the region and exports from it by ensuring a consistent and quality supply. The FACT project aims to sustainably increase the quality and range of exports of Pacific agriculture and forestry products, and to contribute to the integration of the 14 Pacific members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) into the regional and global economy. Source: Solomon Star
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More on the FACT project
European Development Fund
- Banana deal emerging
2009-11-09 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : ACP-EU Trade
An end is in sight to the world's longest-running trade dispute, involving bananas, and a deal could be in place by the end of the year, senior European and Latin American trade negotiators said. Settling the banana dispute would be a fillip for the World Trade Organisation, whose long-running Doha round to free up global commerce, like other trade negotiations, has at times been held hostage by the decades-old row. Cesar Montano Huerta, the top diplomat at the WTO mission of Ecuador, the world's biggest banana exporter, said officials were negotiating intensively and even hoped to clinch a deal in the next couple of weeks. The deal, which could be reached before the WTO's ministerial conference starting November 30, would see the European Union cutting tariffs on bananas for suppliers in Latin America and elsewhere. In return the Latin Americans would drop outstanding challenges to the EU at the WTO, and Brussels would provide compensation to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, mainly former British, French and Portuguese colonies, who would lose their preferential access to the European market. The detailed terms are likely to resemble an agreement almost reached in July last year on the fringes of a meeting of trade ministers seeking a breakthrough on the Doha talks. Source: Reuters
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Read more on the Doha round
World Trade Organisation
- EU leaders approve outlines of diplomatic service
2009-11-09
Task of drafting detailed proposals will be left to the EU's new foreign policy chief. The leaders of the EU's 27 member states have endorsed the outlines of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the new diplomatic corps that is to assist the Union's next foreign-policy chief once the Treaty of Lisbon has been ratified. On the sidelines of their summit in Brussels they signed off on a text agreed earlier this week by foreign ministers that will guide the incoming high representative for foreign affairs and security policy in shaping the EEAS. The new high representative, who under the Lisbon treaty will also serve as a vice-president of the European Commission, is expected to be named at a special summit of EU leaders next month, together with the president of the European Council, the other major new position created by the Lisbon treaty. The EEAS will be a new service autonomous of both the Commission and the secretariat of the Council of Ministers but will include officials from both institutions, as well as national diplomats from the EU's member states. Source: European Voice
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Read more on Lisbon Treaty
Read more on EU bodies
- Economic Partnership Agreements: Safeguards and trade remedies
2009-11-09 NEWSLETTER_CATEGORIES : ACP-EU Trade, Food Security
"Safeguards and trade remedies in the SADC and ESA Economic Partnership Agreements" is a new working paper released by Prof. Gerhard Erasmus. This paper discusses the “Trade Defence Instruments” in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) currently being negotiated between the European Union, on the one hand, and different configurations of ACP countries on the other. These “instruments” cover remedies against unfair trade practices (anti-dumping and countervailing measures) as well as safeguards. ACP concerns about infant industry protection, food security and agriculture are also on the agenda. Source: tralac
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Read more on EPAs
Read more on DG Development
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Isolina BOTO CTA 39 rue Montoyer 1000 Brussels Belgium Tel 02 513 74 36 Fax 02 511 38 68 http://www.cta.int/ http://bruxelles.cta.int/
NOTE If you have questions or suggestions, please write to us at : boto@cta.int For more information on the full range of CTA activities please go to http://www.cta.int/ More information on CTA activities in Brussels at : http://brussels.cta.int/ CTA is an institution of the ACP Group of States (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) and the EU (European Union), in the framework of the Cotonou Agreement and is financed by the EU. Copyright © 2009 Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU. Email:cta@cta.int The opinions expressed in the comments and analysis are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CTA. You are currently subscribed to the CTA Brussels Newsletter.
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