EU Development Policy for a World in Transformation

The starting point of the project 'EU development policy for a world in transformation' is the observation that changes in the political economy of international cooperation and the changing global landscape of poverty, wealth and power are posing major challenges to international development efforts and to European development policy. Adapting EU development cooperation to a world in transformation requires the EU to significantly increase its capacity for collective action, both as an actor with its own interests and strategies, and as a policymaking system in which member states and EU institutions coordinate policymaking and implementation. Against the background of the institutional reforms around the Lisbon Treaty and the next multi-annual financial framework, the aim of the project is to assess the specific institutional and policy challenges for the EU as an actor with global influence and as multilateral setting for EU and member state cooperation on international development to respond to changes in the development landscape. The central question that guides research in this project is whether and to what extent integration, harmonisation and coordination are needed for more effective global development policies?

This question is addressed with references to two perspectives on EU development policy in a transforming world: development policy, focusing mainly on aid; and the EU’s global engagement, focusing on the shift towards forging a policy for global development.