General Information
The European Development Fund (EDF) was established under Articles 131 and 136 of the Treaty of Rome on the European Economic Community as the Development Fund for Overseas Countries and Territories. It is the main instrument for European Union (EU) development cooperation with Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP Group) countries and the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT). Its initial purpose was to promote transformation in overseas territories (with historical links with the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy) and to support their commercial relations with the Communities. The EDF is an extra-budgetary instrument, financed by EU Member States and managed by the European Commission via the EDF Committee. The main objective of the Fund is to reduce poverty and to support actions for peace and security, political stability and democracy in the countries and territories concerned. The current version of the EDF (EDF11) covers the period 2014-2020.
EDF11 (2014-2020) is based on an intergovernmental agreement (the “Internal Agreement”), which entered into force on 1 March 2015. In line with the contribution key mentioned in the Internal Agreement, the Greek contribution to EDF11 stands at 459.832.191 EUR in total, 1.5% of total EDF11 resources which amount to 30.506 billion EUR.
The Committee responsible for EDF11 resources is the EDF Committee, which consists of the representatives of the Governments of the Member States of the European Union and is chaired by a representative of the Commission. It makes key decisions are made as regards programming and allocating EDF11 resources. The qualified majority required for taking a decision refers to 721 votes out of 1000 votes in total, and a measure passes if at least 15 Member States vote for. The blocking minority is 280 votes. Each individual Member State’s number of votes depends on the value of its financial contribution to EDF 11. Greece holds 15 votes in the EDF Committee.
EDF11 geographical coverage
ACP countries receiving funds from EDF11: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Cape Verde, Comoros, Bahamas, Barbados, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Cook Islands, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Republic of Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Tanzania, Timor Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
OCT receiving funds from EDF11: Anguilla, Aruba, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curação, Falkland Islands, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Territories, Greenland, Montserrat, New Caledonia and Dependencies, Pitcairn, Saba, St. Barthélemy, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Saint Helena-Ascension Island-Tristan da Cunha, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Turks and Caicos Islands, Wallis and Futuna Islands.