The EU and UN Development Cooperation: Effective Multilateralism for Global Development

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is considered as a major actor in the international arena, a significant provider of aid and development assistance to the countries of the developing world, and with a growing involvement in global development policymaking through the organisations encompassed within the United Nations framework (Emerson et al., 2010; Farrell, 2008). Since the 1990s, when the EU launched a concerted effort to engage more strategically with the United Nations, and to coordinate the member states’ positions on different issues, and at different levels of the UN, the intention has been to realise a steady movement towards effective multilateralism (Laatikainen and Smith, 2006; Ortega, 2005). The EU and the UN have common goals — international peace and security, respect for human rights, and the promotion of international cooperation in the solution of economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems. Moreover, the European Security Strategy (2005, revised 2008) recognised that ‘in a world of global threats, global markets and global media, our security and prosperity increasingly depend on an effective multilateral system. Strengthening the United Nations, equipping it to fulfil its responsibilities and to act effectively, is a European priority’.