European Commission
EC Development Directorate-General

The Directorate General for Development (DG Development) contributes to the formulation, by the Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, of the Community's development co-operation policy for all developing countries and Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs). In addition, DG Development directly manages and coordinates Community relations with the 71 African, Caribbean and Pacific states (ACP) and the 20 OCTs. In pursuing its mission, DG Development is closely co-operating with other Commission services, in particular the Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), the External Relations DG and the Common Service for External Relations (SCR).

The objective of Community development co-operation policy is to foster sustainable development designed to eradicate poverty in developing countries and to integrate them into the world economy. This can only be achieved by pursuing policies that promote the consolidation of democracy, the rule of law, good governance and the respect for human rights. Putting equity at the centre of its policies, the Directorate General for Development gives priority to defending the interests of the most disadvantaged developing countries and the poorest sections of the population in economically more advanced developing countries. Community development co-operation is to be coordinated with Member States' policies and, as far as possible, with major international donors (such as, for instance, the IMF and World Bank, member organisations of the UN family, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia). These aspects of Community policy are enshrined in the Amsterdam Treaty (Art. 177, 6, 180). In the context this overall objective, DG Development must provide leadership on development policy formulation and prepare initiatives to promote the coordination of policies between the Community and Member States. It shall strive to maximise impact of its work on poverty, make Community development co-operation efficient and facilitate complementarity, coordination and coherence in relation to both other policies pursued by the Community (Art. 178 EC), and to development policies pursued by Member States and other international donors.

The starting point of the work of DG Development is state of the art knowledge on developing countries, development policy, the sciences as well as on any developments in the global economic, political and social environment which may be important when formulating development policies. DG Development will review its staff resources to meet these new objectives.

While focusing on a coherent policy agenda, from time to time DG Development will emphasise certain topical issues in order to set an agenda for the international discussion of development policy or to gain support by the European public for the Community's development co-operation policy.

Links:

European Community External Cooperation Programmes. Policies, Management and Distribution:  This link provides access to a comprehensive report of the European Community development co-operation programme in Asia, Africa, Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Newly Independent States.

Sustainable Development and Environment:   This hyperlink gives access to DG Development's webpages related to environment integration and sustainable development. The webpages provide information on (i) EC policies related to specific sectors, (ii) specific environmental programmes in the different geographical regions, (iii) environment assessment procedures (iv) funding opportunities, and (v) contact points.

Links to EC programmes:
Tanzania
Burkina Faso
Bolivia
Nepal
Thailiand

Contact:

Mr Artur Runge-Metzger
EC/DG DEV/A/5
Environment and Natural Resources
European Commission
200 Rue de la Loi
1149 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32-2-299-2512
Fax: +32-2-299-0961
Email: Artur.Runge-Metzger@cec.eu.int