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Overall EC Development Policy
In 2000, the Council and Commission adopted a joint statement on the Community’s development policy. Its main objective is to reduce and eventually eradicate poverty. This objective entails support for sustainable economic development, social and environmental development, promotion of the gradual integration of the developing countries into the world economy and a determination to combat inequality.

Six areas were chosen for attention by the Commission and later adopted by the Council:
• the link between trade and development
• support for regional integration and co-operation
• support for macro-economic policies
• transport
• food security and sustainable rural development
• institutional capacity-building, particularly in the area of good governance and the rule of law.

The environment including natural resources and forests is a crosscutting issue. This requires that environmental concerns be integrated into all areas of development cooperation. Although several communications and strategies have been adopted, in practice, their impact seems limited.

Integration of environment and biodiversity in development co-operation
As part of the EU Treaty (the Amsterdam Treaty) the European Union is obliged to integrate environment into all sectors of EU policies:

Article 6: "Environment protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Community policies and activities referred to in the Article 3, in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development."
Article 3 (1): "The activities of the Community shall include... (r) a policy in the sphere of the development co-operation."

The Amsterdam Treaty also demands that EC policies shall contribute to sustainable development:

Article 174: "... Community policy on the environment shall contribute to the pursuit of the following objectives: - preserving and protecting and improving the quality of the environment - protecting human health - prudent and rational utilisation of natural resources - promoting measures at international level to deal with regional or world wide environmental problems."

To implement these requirements DG Development has drafted a Communication (October 1999, HTML) on how environmental and development issues can be integrated into practices and policies. The aim of this draft strategy is to integrate environment concerns into the six areas where the Commission will concentrate its activities.

Based on the Commission’s strategy, the Council has issued its Conclusions (May 2001, PDF, 36k), which set out the priority activities for the European Institutions. These include enhancing policy dialogue on the environment with partner countries, incorporating environmental themes into programming and Country Strategy papers and the inclusion of environmental dimensions into projects. The Council will monitor progress and review the strategy in 2004.

Biodiversity Action Plan for Development Co-operation
Several EU DGs have developed action plans on implementing the goals set out in the EC’s Biodiversity Strategy. There are now Biodiversity Action Plans for the conservation of natural resources, agriculture and development. All of these can be found on the aid publications page.