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European Union

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the European Union

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The European Development Fund (EDF) is the main instrument for European Union (EU) aid for development cooperation in Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP Group) countries and the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT). Funding is provided by voluntary donations by EU member states.^[1] The EDF is subject to its own financial rules and procedures, and is managed by the European Commission (EC) and the European Investment Bank.^[2]

Articles 131 and 136 of the 1957 Treaty of Rome provided for its creation with a view to granting technical and financial assistance to African countries that were still colonised at that time and with which certain countries had historical links.

Usually lasting 6 years, each EDF lays out EU assistance to both individual countries and regions as a whole. The EU is currently on its 10th EDF from 2008-2013 with a budget of €22.7 billion.^[1] This currently represent about 30% of EU spending on development cooperation aid, with the remainder coming directly from the EU budget.^[1]

The budget of the 10th EDF can be broken down as follows:^[3]

• €21 966 million to the ACP countries (97% of the total),

1. €17 766 million to the national and regional indicative programmes (81% of the ACP total),
2. €2 700 million to intra-ACP and intra-regional cooperation (12% of the ACP total),
3. €1 500 million to Investment Facilities (7% of the ACP total).

• €286 million to the OCTs (1% of the total),
• €430 million to the Commission as support expenditure for programming and implementation of the EDF (2% of the total).

Negotiations are currently ongoing for the 11th EDF, which, as proposed, would cover the period 2014-2020. This one-year extension compared to the 10th EDF allows the end of the 11th EDF to coincide with the expiration of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement in 2020 and the EU budget period.^[2] 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”. The Member State contributions keys 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.^[2]

There is currently a debate on whether to 'budgetise' the EDF.^[1] However, in the Communication ‘A budget for Europe 2020’, the European Commission underlined that it was not appropriate at present time to propose that the EDF be integrated into the EU budget.^[2] The perceived advantages include^[1]:

• contributions would be based on GNI and this may increase the currently voluntary contributions
• the harmonisation of EU budget and EDF administration might decrease administration costs and increase effectiveness of the aid
• 20% of aid to the ACP countries already originates from the EU budget
• an all-ACP geographic strategy is no longer relevant as programmes are more localised to regions or country-level
• there would be increase democratic control and parliamentary scrutiny

The perceived disadvantages are that^[1]:

• 90% of EDF resources reach low-income countries as opposed to less than 40% of aid from the EU budget development instruments
• a loss of aid predictability and aid quality as the EU budget is annual, unlike the 6-year budget of the EDF

In 2005, the EU and its Member States agreed to achieve a collective level of ODA of 0.7% of GNI by 2015 and an interim target of 0.56% by 2010, with differentiated intermediate targets for those EU Member States which had recently joined the Union. On the 23rd of May 2011, EU ministers responsible for development cooperation gathered to take stock of progress made and concluded that additional efforts would be needed to close an estimated gap of €50 billion to reach the self-imposed collective EU target of 0.7% by 2015.^[2]

See also[link]

• Development Cooperation Instrument
• ACP-EU Development Cooperation
• ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
• EuropeAid Co-Operation Office
• The Courier (ACP-EU) : The magazine of Africa-Caribbean-Pacific and European Union cooperation and relations

References[link]

External links[link]

• Europa: Summaries of EU legislation: European Development Fund
• What is 10th EDF programming? EC aid programming for ACP countries
• EC Aid to Africa African Voices in Europe

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Danutė Budreikaitė (born May 16, 1953 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian politician and Member of the European Parliament; part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

References[link]

• Danutė BUDREIKAITĖ. European Parliament.

This article about a Member of the European Parliament is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article about a Lithuanian politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Pat the Cope Gallagher (Irish: Pádraigh Ó Gallchóir Cope^[1]; born 10 March 1948) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North–West constituency, having previously served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal South–West constituency^[2] and as a junior minister.

Background[link]

Gallagher was born in Burtonport, County Donegal. He was educated at Dungloe Secondary School, St. Enda's College, Galway and University College Galway where he graduated with a B. Comm in 1970.^[3] He worked as a fish exporter until 1982,^[3] becoming involved in local politics in 1979.

Political career[link]

Gallagher was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1981 general election, retaining his seat until retiring at the 1997 general election. Gallagher was appointed Minister of State for Marine and the Gaeltacht in 1987, serving in that post until 1994.

In 1994 he was elected to the European Parliament as an MEP for the Connacht–Ulster constituency and was re-elected at the 1999 European Parliament election.^[4] During his period in Europe, Gallagher was a member of a number of committees including Fisheries, Economics and Monetary and Industry and Energy.

He returned to domestic politics to successfully contest the 2002 general election and he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. In Bertie Ahern's Cabinet reshuffle in 2004 he received the portfolio of Minister of State for the Marine. Following a period in this role, Gallagher was moved to the Department of Transport in February 2006 where he served as Minister of State until May 2007. In June 2007 he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with responsibility for Health Promotion and Food Safety. He was not re-appointed as a Minister of State after Brian Cowen became Taoiseach in May 2008.

He was elected as an MEP for the North–West constituency at the 2009 European Parliament election.^[5] Immediately thereafter Gallagher replaced Brian Crowley as the head of Fianna Fáil's European delegation;^[6] this promotion came in the aftermath of Crowley publicly attacking the party's decision to join the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. Gallagher is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries

Despite still being a serving politician in Europe, Gallagher receives annual pension payments of €70,562 a year from his time as a TD and junior minister.^[7]

Family[link]

His somewhat unusual middle name 'The Cope' refers to his family connection to The Cope agricultural cooperative which operates in The Rosses area of Donegal. This name is even used officially, in his profile on the Fianna Fáil website and on the European Parliament website.^[8] Gallagher is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries and also serves as Chairman of the delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and to the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Gallagher's wife, Ann Gillespie, and her sister, Eibhlin, both served almost 10 years of a 15-year sentence for conspiracy and explosive charges. In 1974 the sisters were visiting a house in Manchester when a bomb being made there exploded.^[9]

Gillespie maintains her innocence, saying police used evidence from discredited scientist Frank Skuse, but does not wish to reopen the case. In 2005 Gillespie's solicitor, Gareth Peirce, stated she believed that the case could have been successfully re-opened.^[9]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Pat the Cope Gallagher's page on the Fianna Fáil website

v t e « 2004–2009 «   Members of the European Parliament for Ireland (2009–2014)   » 2014–2019 » Dublin *Proinsias De Rossa (LAB / S&D) †Joe Higgins (SP / GUE/NGL) Gay Mitchell (FG / EPP) East Liam Aylward (FF / ALDE) Nessa Childers (LAB / S&D) Mairead McGuinness (FG / EPP) North-West Pat the Cope Gallagher (FF / ALDE) Marian Harkin (IND / ALDE) Jim Higgins (FG / EPP) South Brian Crowley (FF / ALDE) ‡Alan Kelly (LAB / S&D) Seán Kelly (FG / EPP) †Substituted by Paul Murphy on 1 April 2011 ‡Substituted by Phil Prendergast on 21 April 2011 *Substituted by Emer Costello in February 2012

Linnar Viik in 2011.

Linnar Viik is an Estonian internet guru.^[1][2][3] Currently he is a lecturer and member of the board of the Estonian IT College. Linnar Viik is a member of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology governing board, member of Advisory Board of Nordic_Investment_Bank, member of the Research and Development Council of Estonia, Chairman of the Board of the Open Estonia Foundation.

He is a founder and member of the boards of several mobile communications, broadband and software companies, former advisor to the Prime Minister of Estonia on ICT, innovation, R&D and civic society issues.^[1][4]

Earlier occupations include United Nations Development Programme as advisor and Stockholm Environment Institute as Councilor. Linnar Viik has written over 120 articles and 10 reports, mostly on the topics of Knowledge Based Economy and Implications of Information Society,^[4] as well as been instrumental in the rapid development of Estonian computer and network infrastructure, as well as the Estonian Internet Voting and eSignature projects.

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Äripäev November 16, 2001: M-äri keskendub SMSile by Viktoria Korpan
2. ^ juura.ee September 16, 2002: Digitaalallkirja saab varsti kasutada
3. ^ Eesti Ekspress July 21, 2004: Steve J by Krister Kivi
4. ^ ^{a b} About The Presenters — Linnar Viik

See also[link]

• (Estonian) Personal blog
• Linnar Viik - Estonia's Mr Internet