Policy coherence for development

The EU policy for developing countries must be more coherent if it is to contribute to poverty eradication rather than obstructing it. All policy areas must be consistent in contributing to just and sustainable development if the Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved. Poverty will never be eradicated with development aid alone.

The EU agricultural policy forces farmers in poor countries to compete with subsidised products from EU countries. A coherent development policy must lead to changes that bring an end to such damaging subsidies. The EU trade policy and the various trade agreements negotiated between the EU and developing countries impact the countries’ possibilities of pursuing a sustainable development policy. Meanwhile, the EU has adopted a strategy, Global Europe, which, among other things, stipulates that the trade policy shall facilitate for European companies to compete on the world market and secure access to raw materials.

Sweden should strive towards the EU allowing development policy goals to determine positions at negotiations so as to ensure that the trade agreements fulfil the requirements as laid down in the EU Policy Coherence for Development. The trade agreements should also be flexible by giving developing countries the right to protect local food production and the upkeep of small farmers, likewise regulate investments and foreign companies in order to promote human rights and the needs of the poor.

It is also vital that the EU pursues stringent global measures against the flight of capital when individuals and companies place capital and assets in tax havens to avoid paying tax in their own countries. The sum of this capital flight is much larger than the global development aid allocated from the north to the south today. A few vital steps have been taken to improve the information relating to the capital flows between different countries, but much more can be done to give all countries access to the information and in the long term close the tax havens.