Today is a good day for the international cooperation and for the external dimension of the European Union. Today is the day we finally kick off ´Global Europe´, also known as the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), the EU’s financial instrument - worth EUR 79.5 billion - to promote EU values, principles and interests worldwide, with specific regard to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

This instrument, valid for the next seven years, will ensure more coherence and consistency among EU external policies. Thanks to the work of our rapporteur and all S&D MEPs involved, we made Global Europe more transparent, efficient and democratic with a major active role for the EU Parliament. Delegated acts determining the specific objectives and priority areas of cooperation for geographic programmes and thematic targets have been set up, as well as a high-level geopolitical dialogue between the HR/VP and the Commissioners and the European Parliament, at least twice a year, for orientations on the implementation of the NDICI.

S&D rapporteur and member of the committee on foreign affairs, Maria Arena MEP, said:

“We are finally ensuring more consistency, more efficiency and also more transparency to the new and single financial instrument of the external dimension of the EU. In the next seven years, the European Union will be able to rely on a budget of 79 billion euros to boost our Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation, to promote EU values and democracy and to facilitate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

“After a long institutional battle with the EU Council and Commission, we ensured a major role for the European Parliament that will now have a say on the orientations and programming of Global Europe.

“As Progressives, we are particularly proud of having avoided the introduction of the conditionality of the development aids to the migration issue. We could not accept that the EU used funds, devoted to helping developing countries, as a form of blackmail to stop migratory flows. Facing migration means eradicating the root causes, such as poverty and climate change, and carrying out a concrete fight in favour of human rights, democracy, sustainable development and education.

“Today is a good day for Europe and for international cooperation.”

S&D shadow rapporteur and member of the development committee, Marc Tarabella MEP, added:

“We are proud of having created a coherent and progressive new instrument. Despite member states’ reluctance, we achieved the integration of the European Development Fund into the EU budget, allowing for more transparency and accountability, as well as enlarging the scope of EU external policies by bringing together foreign policy, geopolitical interests, the development cooperation’s goals and the eradication of poverty. This is a real and concrete step forward. The European Parliament will also have a larger involvement in determining the specific objectives and priorities, the areas of cooperation and the main orientations on the implementation.

“Now, it us up to all the European Institutions to do the necessary to move from words to deeds and implement on the ground this new crucial tool.”