The European Union and International Aid Negotiations: Institutional Dynamics, External Opportunities, Policy Impact

International negotiations on aid effectiveness have been very prominent in the global agenda on international development. The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action were an attempt to address the numerous criticisms moved to the Western-dominated aid system. The 2011 Busan Partnership for Effective Development, endorsed also by the rising powers, was pitched to represent the beginning of a new era in international development. Interestingly, despite being celebrated as the largest provider of aid in the world, the role of the European Union in these aid negotiations has been overlooked. This omission is rather surprising, particularly at a time in which academic analyses on the role of the EU as a global actor abound. Nevertheless, some practitioners have argued that the EU has been able to shape the global agenda on aid effectiveness in the Paris and Accra aid summits but has played a marginal role in the case of the 2011 Busan aid summit. With the aim of filling this gap, this paper ask what explains variation, if any, in the EU’s performance in international aid negotiations. To do so, the paper looks at both the EU’s internal dynamics, thus focusing on the convergence of preferences (or lack of) of the member states, and the external opportunity structure, paying particular attention to the EU’s interaction with established and emerging donors, as well as developing countries.