European Development Aid Law: Legal Basis for the EU Development Aid Activities

EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT AID LAW: 

LEGAL BASIS FOR THE EU DEVELOPMENT AID ACTIVITIES 

NATALIYA YAKUBOVSKA

 

PhD, Associate Professor at the Department of International Law and International Relations, 

National University “Odessa Law Academy”

 

The paper analyzes European Development Aid Law as a body of legal rules that regulate the EU financing of external aid provided to the developing countries. It argues that the legal acts comprising the sources of European Development Aid Law could be systematized by grouping into: primary legislation, international agreements and secondary legislation. The paper identifies the legal acts that compose each group. It proceeds in three steps: the description of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union articles relevant to EU development aid activities; the analysis of international agreements, primarily the Cotonou Agreement and bilateral Financing Agreements which precede the provision of aid funded from the European Development Fund and the EU general budget; enumeration and concise description of secondary law acts governing external aid provided within the framework of EU external action instruments funded from the EU general budget and the European Development Fund. It then turns to concluding remarks recounting the main features of the EU Development Aid Law sources.