§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will set out the existing disparities between the European Community's development co-operation policy(a) in general and (b) in respect of evaluation of projects and programmes and those of the United Kingdom; and whether the working group has published comparisons between policies and priorities of all member states and those of the community. [31596]
§ Mr. BaldryThe aims for Community development cooperation set out in the Maastricht treaty are consistent with those of the UK.
Since Maastricht, further measures have been taken to enhance policy and operational coordination between the EC and member states. Joint guidelines have been agreed for a number of sectors—family planning, health, AIDS, education, food security—and a pilot exercise launched in selected countries to enhance operational coordination
The evaluation methodology employed by the European Commission addresses the same issues as the UK's. The main difference is the greater emphasis in UK evaluation studies on examining the cost-effectiveness and on rating the success of projects and the programmes. For further details on this issue I refer the hon. Member to the Foreign Affairs Committee's First Report Session 1994–95 on Monitoring of the European Community Aid Programme and the Government's response to this, Cm2870.
110WNo comprehensive comparison of Community and all member state development cooperation policies has been published. However the policies of all member states who are members of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD are regularly reviewed by that committee.