Andris Piebalgs’ hearing for Development Commissioner
On 11 January 2010 Andris Piebalgs, the Latvian Commissioner designate for Development, had his hearing before the members of the European Parliament. He was asked to reply to Development Committee questions on the key aim of development policy - fighting poverty - as well as on aid effectiveness, the impact of climate change on developing countries, and co-ordination among EU policy makers. MEPs of all political groups set out their development policy priorities at the start of the hearing.
At the beginning of the hearing Commissioner designate Piebalgs outlined his aims for the next five years- the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), - ensuring delivery on existing development assistance commitments, aid effectiveness, policy coherence and respect for human rights.
Mr Piebalgs stressed he would make the best use of the newly created foreign policy High Representative and the External Action Service, however without "allowing development policy to be seen in any way as simply a tool to achieve wider political goals for the EU". He also urged "to maintain the EU’s role as a champion of the developing world."
During a rather difficult start, the Commissioner designate was criticised by several MEPs for:
not mentioning the issue of children’s rights to health (Guy Mitchell, MEP),
not referring to human rights (Thijs Berman, MEP),
vague explanations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (Gabriele Zimmer, MEP).
On more than one occasion Mr. Piebalgs highlighted the importance to reach the MDGs by 2015, insisting that National governments must stick to their promise to increase development aid to 0.7% of gross domestic product - in spite of (and even more in) times of financial crisis.
Furthermore, Mr. Piebalgs underlined the importance of policy coherence for development to ensure that development aims are not undermined by other EU priorities. He said that "it would be wrong to give money with one hand and take it away with another policy". Piebalgs also supported the idea of placing the European Development Fund within the EU budget, a long-standing request of the Parliament as it would give it more control over the fund.
Commenting on the risk that Official Development Assistance (ODA) might be redirected to fund climate change related aid, Mr Piebalgs stressed the need to deliver on aid commitments for 2010-2011. He also postulated separate funding for both climate change and poverty eradication - even though they are linked. In this context, the Commissioner designate said that he was open to the possibility of introducing a Tobin tax.
Finally, Mr. Piebalgs affirmed he would engage with civil society and that he plans to meet with NGOs immediately after the hearings. He said he was looking forward to fruitful cooperation with High Representative Ashton and promised to be available for the EP “seven days out of seven and 24 hours out of 24”.
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