Vienna, 2011-01-28

Response to the consultation on Financing All External Relations

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

We would like to inform you that the Austrian National PlatformGLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY – Platform for Development and Humanitarian Aid, which represents 43 organisations, has decided not to complete the questionnaire that was available online.

This decision was taken understanding the importance of the political choices and subsequent financial decisions that will need to be made, but we were concerned firstly thatthe format and the substance of the questionnaire are too limiting and too open for misinterpretation for a consultation of such importance. The format does not allow for a nuanced response to quite complex issuesand may indeed provide you with misleading answers that are not helpful to you or a reflection of our positions and our experience. The answers to these questions will never be a simple ‘strongly agree’ or ‘strongly disagree’. Secondly our positions would be reduced into a statistical analysis that does not reflect the complexity of the issues.

The Lisbon Treaty, the Cotonou Agreement, the Development Cooperation Instrument and the EU Consensus on Development all clearly state that the eradication of poverty is the main objective of EU development policies. Therefore we believe that any discussions on financing of external relations post 2013 must begin with the Lisbon Treaty, which provides the principal framework governing EU cooperation with all developing countries[1].In order to eradicate poverty the EU must focus on tackling the root causes of poverty such as inequality, discrimination, exclusion and vulnerability in the partner country. This implies the Five Red Lines on Development Policy defined by CONCORD[2]:

  1. Increasing and protecting ODA.
  2. Integrating policy coherence for development.
  3. Improving transparency and prioritise aid effectiveness.
  4. Increasing flexibility in the budget.
  5. Supporting the participation of CSOs in development.

We took the decision not to answer the questionnaire understanding that this is the beginning of a consultation process and the starting point of discussions on financing for external relations and the Multi-Annual Framework post 2013.We are looking forward to discussions further along in the process on the many details that need to be decided upon (such as instruments, funding for geographical programmes, thematic areas etc).

In this respect, GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY welcomes the EC’s willingness to organise further stakeholder meetings in the coming months.

With kind regards,

Petra Navara-Unterluggauer, Director

Globale Verantwortung - Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Entwicklung und Humanitäre Hilfe

Apollogasse 4/9, 1070 Wien, ZVR-Zahl: 545116037

Tel & Fax: ++43-1-522 44 22,

[1]defined by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC)

[2]