The Europeanisation of Aid: Member States and EU Development Policy

Abstract

This panel forms part of a research project on the Europeanization of development aid which is the first comprehensive study of the interaction between EU member state and EU aid policies. While a growing literature on the politics of EU development aid has emerged in recent years, cross-fertilization with studies on EU member states’ aid policy has been limited. Existing studies have mostly focused on the politics of EU aid in Brussels (at the European Commission and the European External Action Service), on the European integration of aid policy including the EU’s attempts to acquire more autonomy from the member states (bottom-up dimension), and on the interaction between aid and other development-related policies (such as trade and agriculture). However, the top-down impact of the EU on the policy, polity and politics of member state aid policies has barely received any attention. The vast literature on Europeanization has focused on various issues related to environmental policy, internal market, justice and home affairs and even foreign and security policy, but the aid dimension has been consistently neglected. Specifically, the research questions are to what extent and under what conditions there has been a Europeanization (top-down impact) in the realm of development aid. This panel in particular involves a comparative component (what are the differences and similarities between EU donors? How have these evolved over time?) and an analytical component (How can changes be explained? How important is the ‘EU’ in this respect?), with studies covering different EU member states (such as the UK, France, the Nordics, CEES) and different topics (such as aid effectiveness, political conditionality and human rights).