European Development Fund - Main contents

Entry into force of the 11th European Development Fund

This week, the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) entered into force after all EU Member States completed the necessary ratification.

The EU is now ready to continue its successful support to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries with the ambition to overcome poverty and achieve sustainable development in many of the world’s poorest places. The 11th EDF will finance EU cooperation projects in the years until 2020 with a total of €30.506 billion.

The EU funding is always agreed in close partnership with each of the ACP countries or regions to make sure that we are aligned to their national or regional priorities and development plans. We lay these down in so-called National or Regional Indicative Programmes with them. For the period until 2020 all but a few of these programmes have been finalised and signed with the national governments in recent months.

So to put today’s good news in simple terms: In over 70 countries around the world the EU will now start getting new development projects off the ground, together with governments, NGOs and international partners; allowing us to enter into a new phase of our ongoing cooperation.