HL Deb 18 June 2003 vol 649 cc113-4WA
Lord Howell of Guildford

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will make a continuation of the United Kingdom contribution of 19 per cent of the European Union's assistance programmes for the Middle East and North Africa region conditional on reform and improvement of these programmes.[HL 3281]

Baroness Amos

The UK's contribution to the EC budget is governed by treaty and determined by rules set out in the "Own Resources Decision". Such contributions are to the EC budget as a whole, and it is not possible to impose unilateral variations to individual community spending programmes.

Improving the effectiveness of EC aid remains a key objective for DfID. In August 2001, we published a revised strategy for improving the poor performance of the EC's development programme, building on the Commission's own programme of reform launched in 2000. In May of this year, the UK Action Plan for the reform of EC external spending was presented to ECOFIN by the Chancellor. This suggests an acceleration of the reform process.

We recently circulated our draft regional assistance plan for the Middle East and North Africa region for public consultation. This envisages DfID working much more closely with the EC than hitherto, with a view to helping the Commission improve the effectiveness of their development programmes in the region.