Follow-up by the European Commission to the EU-ACP JPA on the resolution on private sector development strategy, including innovation, for sustainable

Transcription

1 Follow-up by the European Commission to the EU-ACP JPA on the resolution on private sector development strategy, including innovation, for sustainable Development. The European External Action Service and the European Commission welcome the resolution on private sector development strategy, including innovation, for sustainable Development adopted by the 29th ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly during its session in Strasbourg from 1 to 4 December A number of recommendations are of the competence of our ACP partners but for other recommendations, which concord in particular with the priorities and actions of our own communication "a stronger role of the private sector in achieving inclusive and sustainable growth in developing countries" the EU has already started to act. This is the case for the following recommendations: 1. The EU has started to implement a framework for structured dialogue with the private sector in particular at European level increasing interactions with representatives of the private sector in the frame of parallel sessions to the Policy forum on development and will continue to strengthen public and private dialogue at local and regional level. 3. The EU welcomes the UN Open Working Group report as a whole and notes the critical importance of incorprating peace and security issues within the overall framework. The EU also notes the critical importance of access to justice for all and effective, accountable and inclusive institutions for sustainable development. 4. The EU fully recognizes the importance to step up support to micro, small and medium sized enterprises and will make sure that future EU private sector development support programmes will target specifically this type of enterprises in the formal and informal sector. 6. The EU is convinced that there is a role to play for the Commission to scale up innovative market based solutions to development problems and is already considering scaling up actions oriented platforms and networks which will facilitate knowledge sharing, partnerships and match-making between businesses and other actors. 7. Tax evasion has a tremendous negative effect on developing countries' and certainly on ACP countries' ability to mobilise domestic revenues. Therefore Domestic Resources Mobilisation, tax evasion and illicit financial flows are very high on the upcoming Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa. The EU is strongly committed to continue and further increase its support to developing (ACP) countries in this regard. In the context of the Financing for Development Conference, the European Commission will therefore present its position in the form of a Staff Working Document on Domestic Revenue Mobilisation and Development and a 'Flagship Initiative' to successfully implement the EU support to developing countries. The ACP countries will naturally be a key target group in this respect. 11. Provision of support for improving a business environment conducive of private sector initiative will remain an essential pillar of EU private sector development assistance.

2 12 Regarding energy and access to energy for all, in the context of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) and following up on the EU-Africa summit (Brussels, April 2014), actions follow a three tiered approach. The first area is a reinforced bilateral and multilateral dialogue to ensure strong political engagement by all actors. The second area is to ensure that the national and regional authorities have the necessary capacity to develop and monitor adequate regulatory frameworks. In order to build up this crucial capacity the EU created a 50 million Euro Technical Assistance Facility. The third area is the provision of the necessary financing tools to turn objectives into projects. In the financial programming period, around 30 partner countries have chosen energy as a focal sector for their bilateral cooperation with the EU. Far more countries could benefit from our regional and global cooperation programmes and thus a total of around 3.5 billion euros is expected to leverage between 15 and 30 billion euros in loans and equity investment for key energy infrastructure projects. 14 The EU acknowledges the importance given to capacity building to strengthen a dynamic and innovative private sector. Therefore it is determined to play an important role in education at all levels and will devote EUR 4.7 billion to this sector over the period. Universal access to quality basic education is crucial to increase the knowledge, skills and aptitudes of the workforce competitiveness. Vocational Education and Training (VET) is increasingly recognized as a driver for economic and social development and for the period, 13 ACP countries have chosen VET as a sector of concentration. At Higher Education level, the capacity building component of Erasmus + aims at improving the quality of higher education in the partner countries as well as enhancing its relevance for the labour market and society. 15 EDF development programmes are agreed in close partnership with each of the countries or regions, to ensure the cooperation is aligned to the respective national or regional priorities of partner countries, which are able to exercise their ownership of the development process. During the identification/instruction and implementation of programmes appropriate involvement of ACP stakeholders have to be demonstrated and assured. 16 As mentioned in the "joint ACP EU cooperation framework for private sector development" adopted in June 2014 in Nairobi, the EU and the ACP group focused on complementarity and subsidiarity between actions falling under the National indicative programmes (NIPs) and Regional Indicative programmes (RIPs) and agreed on the need to devote a significant proportion of the intra ACP envelope to private sector support. The value added of interventions at different levels will have to be justified in particular during the programme identification and instruction. 18 The EU supports responsible management of global supply chains and responsible business practices among European companies in developing countries. The Commission's vision in relation to Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) is to promote a smart mix of voluntary policy measures and, where necessary, complementary regulation. Two major Directives were adopted last year. The first promotes transparency by requiring the reporting of non-financial information by large EU companies and the second includes provisions to facilitate the integration of social and environmental criteria in public procurement contracts

3 in EU MS public administrations. The Commission also encourages EU companies to adopt responsible business practices wherever they operate and to implement pertinent internationally recognised guidelines. Responsible business practices are also underpinned by legislation in certain sectors where risks are particularly high, such as logging and mining (EU Timber Regulation, FLEGT as well as Regulation on voluntary certification of conflicts minerals in negotiation). 19 The EU agrees on the importance of national indicative programmes and recalls that one of the focuses of the private sector communication is also to mainstream private sector development and engagement in EU development cooperation. Opportunities for strengthening the role of private sector with a view to achieving inclusive and sustainable growth exits in most areas of EU support. 20 The EU is a leading player in the area of low-carbon technologies to tackle climate change. An enabling environment for a broad spectrum of climate technologies, for both adaptation and mitigation, can be created from the combination of innovation policy, capacity building, and relevant technical advice that collectively leverage financial support and the effective use of market mechanisms. It is also important to support the market introduction and take-up of technologies; owned inter alia by the private sector, with a long-term vision for actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. The EU is already contributing significantly to the transfer of technology to developing countries by financing climate action and development projects with a technology dimension, as well as through research collaboration. Over 35% of the programmable part of the research and innovation programme Horizon 2020 is invested in climate-related projects open to participants from developing countries 21 Under the intra-acp programme, it is proposed to allocate up to 600 M of the total envelope to tackle key issues such as the business environment, financial inclusion, access to finance, and promote ACP-EU dialogue on PSD issues. In order to provide better information and as agreed in the "joint ACP EU cooperation framework for private sector development" it is proposed inter alia to establish an EU ACP platform for dialogue which will also contribute to lesson sharing and dissemination of good practices between relevant ACP stakeholders around private sector development programmes. 22 The EU recognizes the importance of and is currently reforming its monitoring and reporting mechanisms. Since 2015, the new ROM (Results-Oriented Monitoring) system implemented by external contractors already ensures: (1) an improved review for better project management of on-going projects, and (2) a support to end of projects results reporting in particular in the context of the new EU Results Framework. All these changes, soon to be supported by a new operational information system, should substantially increase the overall capacity of the European Commission to monitor the implementation of EC funded projects and report on concrete results. 23. The EU recognises the importance to foster business partnerships between ACP and EU SMEs. Inter alia, the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) is already making appropriate coordination and operational support available for the

4 establishment of 'Business Cooperation Centres' in third countries to cooperate with the Enterprise Europe Network in order to facilitate business, technology as well as research partnerships between SMEs in their own country and European SMEs. Increased interactions are also taking place in particular in the Commission between DG DEVCO and DG GROW to exchange and further disseminate good practices. In the agriculture sector, private investments, including from EU companies, can be instrumental in bringing expertise, technology and financing capacities through links with local partners, to increase agricultural production in a sustainable manner and to upgrade value chains. The EU supports ACP farmers to increase their market opportunities, be it local, national, regional, or global markets in many countries through building effective and inclusive value chains in which MSME agri-businesses (input suppliers, traders, transporters, processors) play an important role. 25. In February 2013, the Commission tabled its Proposal for a Council Directive implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of Financial Transaction Taxes (FTT). The first objective of this proposal is to harmonise FTT legislation between the 11 Member States, who have been authorised to establish an enhanced cooperation (as provided for in the EU Treaties) in the area of setting up a common FTT system. Consequently, the proposal includes provisions relating to the functioning and design of a common (harmonised) FTT and does not deal with the use of the revenue. The February proposal is currently being discussed at the EU Council level (including separately among the 11) and there is no agreement yet on a final text. As a rule it would be for the participating MS to decide upon allocation of revenue, while respecting relevant EU and other legislation. 26. In 2015, the Commission envisages adopting a decision concerning the Africa investment Facility (AfIF) which will be multi sectorial and beside contributing to infrastructural development will, as a new objective, also be able to improve access to finance for Micro, small and medium sized enterprises including offering access to further risk-sharing mechanisms, in particular in the agriculture and energy sector, to catalyse public-private partnerships and private investment and in order to leverage further resources and thus increase impact. 28 Investing in gender equality, women s empowerment and Decent Work for women is vital for improving economic, social and political conditions. Figures show that investing in women and girls' education is an effective way to achieve progress in their respective communities and generate wider social, economic and environmental development. The gender commitments of EU development policy are further spelled out in the EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women s Empowerment ( ), which aims to reinforce EU coordination on gender equality policies in development cooperation and improve our work on this matter. This Plan of Action contains a series of activities on different issues ranging from including gender in the political and policy dialogue, improving mainstreaming, and better tracking the aid devoted to ensuring equality between women and men. The operational framework of the EU Plan of Action calls for specific support for action on women s economic empowerment. It will be renewed for the period

5 29 The EU has stepped up efforts to fulfill the commitments made at the Busan high level forum on aid effectiveness regarding public private collaboration for development and endorsed in 2014 the joint declaration on public private cooperation and is taking a more active role in the partnership for prosperity that emerged from the Busan private sector building block. In addition, the EU and Member States have agreed in December 2014 to apply a common set of principles and criteria that complement aid effectiveness principles which shall guide EU's support for private sector development and its engagement with both the local and international private sector. Regarding the post 2015 global framework, the EU considers that recognising that harnessing the potential of private entrepreneurship is central to sustainable development and reaching global objectives. This reaffirms the central importance of private sector led inclusive economic growth as the principal creator of productive jobs and enabler of longterm sustainable development. That underlines the centrality, for each country, of establishing a conductive business environment and the right incentives at all levels to harness the potential of a financial resource that is larger than all public finance combined.