European Community Policy Toward the Developing World

Abstract

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE|Since 1976 Marc Pierini has held positions in the European Commission, primarily focusing on economic and political development in the less developed world. Since Octoberr 1982 his responsibility has been to monitor U.S. policies toward developing countries as well as the activities of the World Bank Group, InterAmerican Development Bank, and the Organization of American States.

SUMMARY| After a brief history of the EC Mr. Pierini moved quickly to the internal workings of the EC that bear on its relations with the developing world. He illustrated EC programs by describing President Regan's Caribbean Basin Initiative as an imitation of the Lome Convention and its follow-ons. He noted that the US is different, however, in that the CBI is unilateral, selective, and bigger. The EC development policy accounts only for 15% of the individual members' development spending. Yet the coordinating role of the EC, even for the remainder of members' spending, is very important... help prevent duplication.