European Development Fund (Disbursements) (Hansard, 16 November 1976)

§ Mr. Prentice

The European Development Fund is established under the Convention of Lomé and exclusively reserved for the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries which are or may become parties to that Convention. Out of its general budget the Community has also negotiated or is negotiating a financil element in its agreements of association with various Mediterranean countries and gives food aid to a number of countries including some non-associates; it is also currently considering the question of other aid to non-associates.

Since before Accession it has been a major United Kingdom objective to get Community development policy put on a more world-wide basis, extending beyond the ACP and Mediterranean countries having "associate" status, and reflecting the priorities of relative poverty and need. Specifically, this means an ongoing programme of Community financial aid for non-associates; and in April 1974 the United Kingdom called for a broadly equal balance in the distribution of Community aid as between the non-associates and those countries benefiting from the various association agreements. Although the non-associates have not been precisely defined the United Kingdom believes that most of this aid should go to those countries which are poorest, most populated and under-aided—particularly in South Asia.

In July 1974 the EEC Council of Ministers approved a Resolution accepting the principle of Community financial aid for the non-associates. The Commission subsequently produced specific proposals for a five-year programme of financial aid amounting in all to 730 million units of account. The Council was unable to agree to this; but a small step forward was made when a provision of 20 million units of account was inserted into the 1976 EEC budget at the 475W insistence of the European Assembly. Following various discussions during the year the Council of Ministers (Foreign Affairs) on 18th and 19th October decided that the 20 mua in the 1976 budget could be spent, subject to the qualifications that spending of the 20 mua was only to go ahead after the Council had discussed with the Commission the allocation of the money and provided that the Council made sufficient progress on the harmonisation and co-ordination of member States' development co-operation policies. This decision was also made on the understanding that the 20 mua was not to be considered as the beginning of an on-going programme: a future Council decision, based on a formal Commission proposal, would have to be taken to introduce and establish a policy for financial and technical aid to non-associated countries. The Council also agreed to include a provision of 30 million units of account for non-associates in the 1977 budget, but this was to be frozen until the Council policy decision in favour had been made.

On the 1976 programme the intention had been that the qualifications on the agreement reached at the Council should be resolved at the Council of Development Ministers on 8th November. In the

TEA PROJECTS
Country	Project	Approximate cost (£)	Duration
Malawi	…	Smallholder Tea Development: to encourage small farmers to grow tea as a cash crop.	75,000 in 1976–77	The present phase began in 1973 and is likely to continue at least until 1978.
Malawi	…	Research study of Physiological Responses of tea to water stress.	14,500	1972–73 to 1976
Bangladesh	…	Appraisal of tea estates and factories in order to formulate proposals for rehabilitation and development.	50,000	April-December 1976
Bangladesh	…	Allocation from commodity grant for equipment for the Bangladesh Tea Board.	500,000	1976-
India	…	Study of improvement in participation of small growers in the production of tea and other cash crops in the Nilgiri Hills. Four man team.	4,000	August-September 1975
Nepal	…	Adviser to the Nepal Tea Development Corporation.	26,000	1973–75
Nepal	…	Survey of smallholder tea development and estates rehabilitation in the Ham area of Eastern Nepal.	8,000	January-March 1976
Indonesia	…	Rehabilitation of tea industry (Government tea estates, private estates and smallholders). Four man advisory team.	120,000	1971–75
Indonesia	…	Supply of tea processing equipment for the Kali Gua tea factory (Java).	90,000	1972–76

476W

event, that Council agreed on a favourable attitude towards the allocation of the appropriation along the lines suggested by the Commision, but no final decision could be taken because the Council failed to make sufficient progress on harmonisation to satisfy a reserve by one of the member States. The linked questions have been put to the Committee of Permanent Representatives and it is to be hoped that a favourable decision will soon be reached.

The decisions taken in the recent EEC Councils represents only a beginning of progress towards our long-term objective, which we shall continue to press, of a balanced aid programme for non-associates and for those benefiting under the various association agreements.