Europeanisation or Internationalisation? A Statistical Analysis of EU Member States’ Commitment to Increase Aid

The oft-heard statement that the European Union is the world’s largest provider of aid implicitly suggests the existence of a common ‘European’ development policy. On the one hand, studies have suggested that EU member states’ aid policies have indeed converged since the early 2000s. On the other hand, existing literature continues to point to divergences between the ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ EU donors. The central aim of this paper is to analyze whether and to what extent Europeanization has taken place between the different EU donors between 1990 and 2013. Our (so far provisional) conclusions show evidence of a significant convergence between EU member states aid policies over 1990-2013, even if North-South divisions within the EU continue to exist. However, we also find that despite some notable exceptions the observed convergence cannot be seen as Europeanization in the sense that very similar evolutions are observed in non-EU member states over time.