The Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations / Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales, IDDRI, in cooperation with French Ministry of Foreign Affairs are organizing a very interesting MFF workshop in Paris.
In May 2018 European Commission presented Its proposals for the EU budget after 2020. Through an increased general amount and the inclusion of new fields of action such as migration management or security, this Multiannual Financial Framework (2021 – 2027) has three objectives. “First, gain flexibility, so that you can react to the inevitable emergencies. Secondly, gaining solidity, to relaunch economic and social convergence and to face crises. And thirdly, gaining in modernity ”(Junker, 2018), even if this means reducing the two historic spending fields of the EU: agriculture and regional policy (cohesion).
These objectives are manifested in the part of the budget dedicated to external action (known as “heading 6”), where the Commission proposes both to increase investment by 26% compared to the previous MFF and to undertake a major restructuring external action instruments by grouping them under a single instrument.
However, it is unclear whether the level of financial ambition in Heading 6 will survive the negotiations. Financial resources for EU external action will largely be determined by negotiations on other elements of the budget, notably agriculture and regional policy, as was the case in previous MFF negotiations . The single instrument has still not win the support of key member states such as France and Poland (Castillejo and al., 2018). In addition, the negotiations are currently dominated by outstanding questions concerning the integration of migration and security issues.
The objective of the workshop
The general objective of the workshop is to bring together the key players in France to agree on the conditions for securing an ambitious budget dedicated to external action (“Heading 6”), particularly for the challenges of sustainable development in southern countries. This workshop is also an opportunity to question the role of the European Union’s external action policy.
The half-day workshop (3 hours) will be organized in a select committee of ten high-level people, gathered under the rule of “chatham house” in order to encourage informal discussions. It will lead to concrete deliverables.
Photo courtesy of Mark Morgan via Flickr.
