Foreign Affairs Council (Development Ministers)

Wednesday 8th December 2010 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

The Foreign Affairs Council (Development) will meet in Brussels on 9 December. The meeting will be chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, and Vice-President of the European Commission, Baroness Ashton.

Due to priority parliamentary business that day, I regret that my ministerial colleagues and I will not be able to attend. The UK will be represented by the UK’s Permanent Representative to the EU (Kim Darroch). The expected agenda items are as follows:

Green Paper on EU development policy in support of inclusive growth and sustainable development—Increasing the impact of EU development co-operation.

There will be an initial discussion on the main issues presented in the Commission’s recent Green Paper on inclusive growth and sustainable development. This wide-ranging paper is currently the subject of a public consultation. Discussion topics include governance, security and fragility, the co-ordination of aid, budget support, growth, regional integration, climate change and biodiversity, energy and development and agriculture and food security. This is a welcome initiative and a chance to put forward our broader views on the future of EU development policy, albeit with a specific focus on growth.

Afghanistan

EU Special Representative to Afghanistan, Ambassador Usackas, will give a report and update the Council about the latest situation in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a key UK development priority and we look forward to a productive discussion about how best to co-ordinate efforts in the context of the EU action plan on Afghanistan and the Kabul conference. Afghanistan is also on the agenda for Foreign Ministers at the Foreign Affairs Council on 13 December.

Haiti

Given the desperate humanitarian crisis in Haiti, and the recent cholera outbreak, this discussion will focus on how to best deliver support to the Haitian people. This is particularly poignant as we are approaching the first anniversary of the Haitian earthquake on 12 January. The post-earthquake humanitarian support provided by the UK has funded vital work by UN agencies and international NGOs, and helped to provide 380,000 people with food, clean water and medical care.

In response to the cholera crisis I have announced additional help to supply clean water and improve sanitation and hygiene for up to 340,000 people in the north of the country. UK support will also bring in emergency supplies and more than a thousand trained medical practitioners to staff up to 12 major cholera treatment centres and 60 subsidiary cholera treatment units, capable of treating several thousands of cholera victims over the next two months and helping to stop the outbreak spreading across the region.

Mutual Accountability and Transparency

My Swedish counterpart will lead a discussion focused on transparency as a prerequisite for better accountability and more effective development results. This is a UK priority, and we are working hard to encourage other EU member states to agree steps to improve transparency and to ensure EU aid information is published in comprehensive, accessible and comparable ways. We are also working towards an international standard in aid transparency, which will help us to bring aid information closer to user needs as well as meeting our international transparency commitments. We are also supportive of work to encourage greater accountability between those receiving and those providing aid, and their respective citizens.

Innovative Financing Mechanism

The High Representative and Belgian presidency will lead a broad discussion about innovative forms of development financing. The UK is supportive of exploring new innovative finance mechanisms, while emphasising that these should complement, and not deflect from, commitments made by member states to meet agreed targets of 0.7% of GNI for official development assistance by 2015.

International Development Conferences in 2011

The Council will have a first discussion of the key issues to be tackled in two important conferences in 2011.

The least developed countries (LDC) summit will take place in Istanbul from 30 May to 3 June 2011, under the Hungarian EU presidency. We are keen to ensure the outcome of the summit builds on the 2010-15 action agenda agreed at the UN MDG summit in New York in September 2010.

The fourth high-level forum on aid effectiveness will take place in Busan, Korea from 29 November to 1 December 2011 under the Polish EU presidency. The UK is looking forward to working closely with our EU partners in the lead up to the forum, including on strengthening the emphasis on results, value for money, transparency and accountability.

EU-US Summit

The High Representative will report back on the development discussions that took place at the EU-US summit in Lisbon on 20 November 2010. In the summit statement, the EU and US pledged to continue and strengthen co-operation on food security, climate change and the millennium development goals, including health. Discussions will continue through the EU-US dialogue on development and the UK is supportive of this process.