Development policy: complementarity between the Community policy and the policies of the Member States

Adopting the report by Mr McGOWAN (PSE, UK), the committee (chairman: Mr KOUCHNER (PSE, F)) stressed that the Maastricht Treaty called for improved complementarity between Member States' bilateral policies and between national and Community development policies. Unfortunately, the reality was somewhat different. The committee called for better coordination of EU and national programmes and of actions with the EU itself. It considered that the EU and the Member States needed to make a concerted effort to reduce the arms trade throughout the world. Finally, the committee proposed a series of initiatives and for half an hour to be devoted at the beginning of each sitting of the Committee on Development for hearing the views of the NGOs.�