According to a study by the US-based think-tank the Center for Global Development, EU members contribute less to global technological development than other developed nations, and have intellectual property policies that are not "development friendly". European countries conduct most of the world's research and development (R&D) and own most of the globe's intellectual property (IP) rights. However, European IP policies have become stronger, and countries are "instituting changes that are not likely to be development friendly", the study says.
The Roadmap 2014-2017 of the fourth EU-Africa Summit establishes key areas for cooperation: science, technology and innovation; higher education, mobility and migration and employment; sustainable and inclusive development and growth and continental integration; global and emerging issues and the post-2015 development agenda.
An agreement reached between MEPs and the Council on the Regulation setting up a EU Aid Volunteers initiative was approved by an overwhelming majority in plenary (600 in favour, 30 against) on 25 February. Over the next seven years (2014-2020), the 'EU Aid Volunteers' initiative should offer some 4000 Europeans the opportunity to volunteer in humanitarian operations worldwide, and provide capacity-building for an additional 4,400 local staff and volunteers.
A funding shortfall of around half of the EU’s annual humanitarian aid budget will axe life-saving NGO projects and trigger global job losses in July, unless urgent action is taken by politicians of the 28-country bloc, senior officials have told EurActiv. The aid crunch is the result of a gap between the sums that EU member states’ pledged for aid operations in ‘commitment credits’ and what they have so far delivered, under a new 2014-2020 EU budget framework insisted on by countries such as the UK.
A new partnership between the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and UN Women was signed today by ACP Secretary-General Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
In order to provide core, high quality statistics to regional decision-makers for the establishment and monitoring of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME), staff members of the CARICOM Secretariat were brought up to date on new systems for Merchandise Trade Statistics. A consultancy in that regard got underway this week with a briefing session at the CARICOM Secretariat.
"No development funds for military interventions, weapons and materials from the European Development Fund," German Development Minister Gerd Müller emphasised in an interview on Sunday (30 March).
The Sahel region is the southern geopolitical border of Europe. The instability in this region will eventually spread to neighbouring countries of Europe and within its territory. This paper discusses the main problems of the region and offers a critical assessment of the "strategy of the European Union for Security and Development in the Sahel" adopted in 2011. This strategy points to the lack of competence of the authorities and structural poverty, which it considers are the main problems of the region and rightfully recommends acting in a concerted manner in the areas of security and development.
EXCLUSIVE / An award-winning Liberian environmental campaigner has called on the EU to act against at least 16 member states which have still not implemented a timber regulation to combat illegal logging, a year after it came into force. New research from the environmental group Client Earth shows that eight EU countries have done nothing to transpose the law, while ten have only produced draft legislation. A clear majority of countries have no penalties in place to deal with illegally-logged timber entering the bloc. Speaking from Nairobi, where he is working on new IT technologies to map illegal logging, Silas Kpanan’ Ayoung Siakor of the Sustainable Development Institute told EurActiv that the issue should be treated as “a matter of urgency.”