within its field of competence the commission has so far responded rapidly to help prevent disastrous social consequences in developing countries in particular in the least-developed countries most of which are acp states
these measures include honouring aid commitments and leveraging new resources acting counter-cyclically improving aid effectiveness sustaining economic activity and employment revitalising agriculture investing in green growth stimulating trade and private investment working together for economic governance and stability and protecting the most vulnerable in developing countries
concrete actions and procedures have already been put in place to speed up delivery of aid
an ad hoc vulnerability flex instrument will mobilise eur five hundred million from the european development fund
this v-flex is complementary to actions taken by the world bank and the imf and will target the most vulnerable countries with poor resilience capacity giving rapid grant assistance to help them to maintain priority spending notably in the social sectors
as the v-flex utilises previously unallocated reserve funds it represents additional financing for these highly vulnerable countries
eur eighty million has also been mobilised for the funding under the existing edf flex mechanism for countries that suffered significant export losses in two thousand and eight
in addition the mid-term review of cooperation strategies for countries funded from the ec budget is currently under way and the mid-term review for acp countries funded from the edf has been accelerated in order to re-define and adjust the national strategies and allocations in early twenty ten
nevertheless it is important to recall that development policy is a shared competence within the eu
the prime responsibility for delivering on the oda commitments lies with the member states themselves
i strongly believe that the crisis should not be an excuse for our member states to water down donors aid and promises and i will insist on remaining committed to delivering the promised aid levels both for eu member states as well as for other donors
in this regard we very publicly monitor member state oda through our annual monterrey survey
on the basis of the information gathered from member states we foresee the eu collective oda increasing from eur forty-nine billion in two thousand and eight to eur fifty-three point four billion in two thousand and nine and eur fifty-eight point seven billion in twenty ten
this also means that without additional steps by member states to fulfil their individual targets the collective targets for twenty ten will not be achieved
moreover this crisis has also shown that we have to strengthen the mechanisms for delivering oda as the honourable member rightly pointed out
the international aid effectiveness agenda embodied in the paris declaration and the accra agenda for action are now more important than ever
in these difficult economic times we have a particular responsibility towards the world's poor to make sure our development assistance is being channelled effectively
i will defend this approach personally at the november development council and the global financial crisis will be at the centre of my political concerns during the weeks ahead
