The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the agricultural policy of the European Commission. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has since then undergone several changes to reduce the EEC budget cost and consider rural development in its aims. It has however, been criticised on the grounds of its cost, its environmental, and humanitarian effects.
The Cotonou Agreement is a treaty between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States. It was signed in June 2000 in Cotonou, Benin's largest city, by 78 ACP countries and the then fifteen Member States of the European Union. It entered into force in 2003 and was subsequently revised in 2005 and 2010.
The Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, formerly known as the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office, is the European Commission's department for overseas humanitarian aid and for civil protection. It aims to save and preserve life, prevent and alleviate human suffering and safeguard the integrity and dignity of populations affected by natural disasters and man-made crises. Since September 2019, Janez Lenarčič is serving as Commissioner for Crisis Management in the Von der Leyen Commission, and since 1 March 2023, Maciej Popowski leads the organisation as the Director-General.
The European Structural and Investment Funds are financial tools governed by a common rulebook, set up to implement the regional policy of the European Union, as well as the structural policy pillars of the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy. They aim to reduce regional disparities in income, wealth and opportunities. Europe's poorer regions receive most of the support, but all European regions are eligible for funding under the policy's various funds and programmes. The current framework is set for a period of seven years, from 2021 to 2027.
Although there has been a large degree of integration between European Union member states, foreign relations is still a largely intergovernmental matter, with the 27 states controlling their own relations to a large degree. However, with the Union holding more weight as a single entity, there are at times attempts to speak with one voice, notably on trade and energy matters. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy personifies this role.
The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of the European Union, also called the financial perspective, is a seven-year framework regulating its annual budget. It is laid down in a unanimously adopted Council Regulation with the consent of the European Parliament. The financial framework sets the maximum amount of spendings in the EU budget each year for broad policy areas ("headings") and fixes an overall annual ceiling on payment and commitment appropriations.
The budget of the European Union is used to finance EU funding programmes and other expenditure at the European level.
The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) was established in 1983 under the Lomé Convention between the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and EU member states. Since 2000 CTA has operated within the framework of the ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement with a mission to “strengthen policy and institutional capacity development and information and communication management capacities of ACP agricultural and rural development organisations. It assists such organisations in formulating and implementing policies and programmes to reduce poverty, promote sustainable food security, preserve the natural resource base and thus contribute to building self-reliance in ACP rural and agricultural development.”. The centre is closed in 2020, after the end of the Cotonou Agreement and the subsequent end of its financing.
The European Centre for Development Policy Management, more commonly known as ECDPM, is a think tank founded in 1986. It is headquartered in Maastricht, Netherlands and has a second office in Brussels, Belgium.
Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are a scheme to create a free trade area (FTA) between the European Union and other countries. They are a response to continuing criticism that the non-reciprocal and discriminating preferential trade agreements offered by the EU are incompatible with WTO rules. The EPAs date back to the signing of the Cotonou Agreement. The EPAs with the different regions are at different states of play. The EU has signed EPAs with the following countries: the Southern African Development Community (SADC), ECOWAS, six countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, Cameroon, four Pacific states, and the CARIFORUM states. Their defining characteristic is that they open up exports to the EU immediately, while exports to the partner regions is opened up only partially and over transitioning periods.
Development cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) started in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome, which first established a collective European development policy. The Treaty of Rome granted associated status to 31 overseas collectivities and territories (OCTs) and provided for the creation of a European Development Fund (EDF) intended to grant technical and financial assistance to the countries which were still under European rule at the time. More significantly, however, by means of the Treaty of Rome the six member states of the European Economic Community were expressing solidarity with the colonies and OCTs and committed themselves to contribute to their prosperity. The EDF has to date been funded outside the EU budget by the EU Member States on the basis of financial payments related to specific contribution shares, or “keys”, which are subject to negotiation. The EDF is currently the only EU policy instrument that is financed through a specific key that is different from the EU budget key, and which reflects the comparative interests of individual Member States.
The Directorate-General for International Partnerships is the European Commission department responsible for international development policy. It operates under the authority of the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen.
The Instrument for Stability was a financial and political instrument at the disposal of the European Union. It was prepared at strategic level by the EEAS and implemented by the European Commission. In 2021 the IfS was merged into Global Europe.
The Courier was an ACP-EU development magazine published by the Development Directorate General of the European Commission, focusing on ACP-EU Development Cooperation. Financed by the European Development Fund (EDF), it was published every two months, till it came to end in 2011. Its last edition was nr 24 covering months of July and August 2011. Its overall stated objective is to communicate, explain, promote and support the development objectives and principles of the Cotonou Agreement.
Development Cooperation Instrument (2008–2013) covers three components: 1. Geographic programmers supporting co-operation with 47 developing countries in Latin America, Asia & Central Asia, the Gulf region and South Africa. 2. Thematic programmes benefiting all developing countries (including those covered by the European Development Fund 3. Programmes of accompanying measures for the 18 ACP Sugar Protocol countries, to help them adjust and following the reform of the EU sugar regime.
Neven Mimica is a Croatian politician and diplomat who has been serving as European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development in the Juncker Commission since 1 November 2014. He was previously the European Commissioner for Consumer Protection in the Second Barroso Commission from July 2013 until November 2014 and was in that regard the first European Union Commissioner from Croatia following its accession to the European Union.
Cross-border cooperation is the collaboration between adjacent areas across borders. In the European Union this is one of the forms of territorial cooperation. The European model is very diverse with cooperation between border regions or municipalities, or through specific cooperation structures. These structures are usually composed by public authorities from different countries organized in working communities, euroregions or EGTCs.
Policy coherence for development (PCD) is an approach and policy tool for integrating the economic, social, environmental and governance dimensions of sustainable development at all stages of domestic and international policy making. It is the aim of Policy Coherence for Development to make foreign relations to be as ecologically, economically and socially coherent as possible and thereby to make international co-operation for international development more effective.
The European Defence Fund (EDF) is a component of the European Union's (EU) Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) which aims to coordinate and increase national investment in defence research and improve interoperability between national armed forces. It was proposed in 2016 by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and established in 2017. The fund has two stands; Research and Development & Acquisition. In July 2018, the European Commission announced that the EDF budget for 2021-2027 would be €13 billion. This sum was later revised by the European Commission as part of the new EU budget proposed on May 27, 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to which the EDF will be allocated €8 billion over this budget period.
Micronesia–European Union relations are the foreign relations between the country of the Federated States of Micronesia and the European Union. Cooperation between Micronesia and European Union was initiated in 2000 when the country joined the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States and is developed in the framework of Cotonou Agreement within the wider ACP–EU development cooperation. Two sides formalized their direct diplomatic relations on 18 April 2002 when the European Union ambassador Frans Baan attended diplomatic credential ceremony in Palikir. In 2008 the designated national authorizing officer for EU programs Fabian Nimea visited several EU member countries to promote further cooperation between his country and the European Union.
