The European Union By joining the European Union on 1 May 2004, Poland became member of the group of countries that provide more than half of the world’s Official Development Assistance (ODA). As the EU member, Poland accepts the EU’s development assistance goals and instruments and adapts its development assistance activities to the EU’s obligations to the United Nations and other international institutions. Poland undertakes also activities for the co-ordination of development co-operation with other EU countries and the European Commission in order to ensure the consistency of its activities in the area of international development with activities undertaken in other areas. Poland has agreed to: • accept EU development policy goals and the manner of pursuing them, • assume EU international obligations • take the beneficiary countries’ Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) into account in developing bilateral EU Country and Regional Strategy Papers for individual countries and regions, • participate actively in the meetings of development co-operation committees and in the work of task forces operating within the Council of the European Union, • implement EU declarations and action programmes. EU membership entails participation in the management of the EU’s development co-operation policy. This applies, among others, to participation in the meetings of institutions operating within the framework of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission. EU institutions that deal with assistance include e.g.: • Council Task Force for Development Co-operation, • Humanitarian Aid Committee, • Food Aid Committee, • Committee on the European Development Fund, • Committee on Non-Governmental Organisations. Poland’s representative (holding the rank of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs) participates also in informal meetings of the ministers of development co-operation, which are organised once every six months and during which questions related to the EU’s participation in international development co-operation are discussed. In 2005, the Council of the European Union obligated “old” EU member states to adopt their upper limits for the ratio of the Official Development Assistance to the Gross National Product to amount to 0.51% by 2010 and 0.7% by 2015. As regards the new member states, these thresholds are lower and they amount to 0.17% and 0.33% respectively. The achievement of the adopted upper limits by the EU is realistic, assuming that the assistance will be growing at a rate similar to the 2002–2004 growth. If this were the case, in 2010 the EU might allocate more than $80 for development assistance. OECD – DAC Poland jointed the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1996. Since that moment, we have been part of a group of countries treated as developed countries. Poland is an OECD member, but it is not a member of its Committee. It is entitled to attend the sessions of the Committee and its auxiliary bodies with the right to participate in a discussion without the right, however, to make decisions. Poland strives to meet the criteria for membership of the Development Assistance Committee and become member of that body. An OECD member applying for membership of the Committee has to accept all the guidelines adopted by the Committee since the moment of its establishment, comply with all its recommendations, provide full statistical information about the volume of its foreign assistance and a report on the assistance policy every year. The volume of granted assistance is not defined formally, but so far all the countries that have joined the DAC have provided Official Development Assistance (ODA) at the level of at least 0.2% of the GDP. UNO Poland co-operates in the UNO forum in promoting global development co-operation and participates in the United Nations’ campaigns on the reduction of poverty and introduction of the principles of sustained development. We are acting also for the improvement of the United Nations’ efficiency in the implementation of assistance projects. We participate in the process of elaborating development co-operation standards. Apart from that, Poland makes financial contributions to the United Nations’ voluntary assistance funds. We are striving for close co-operation with the Polish office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). www.undp.org.pl
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