Europe Day: Expertise France, a resolutely European agency
The General Assembly of the Practitioners' Network, a network of European development cooperation experts, was held in Vilnius on 11 and 12 May 2022 in the particular context of the conflict in Ukraine which marked the discussions. The network is made up of 22 members, including 17 full members, in particular from European international technical cooperation agencies.
Expertise France and AFD, which are both members of this network, were represented by their Chief Executive Officers, Jérémie Pellet and Rémy Rioux, respectively.
This event marked the end of the co-Presidency of the agencies GIZ (Germany) and CPMA (Lithuania). As of May 2022, this co-Presidency will be held for one year by FIIAAP (Spain) and SNV (Netherlands). Expertise France submitted its candidature and was elected to take over the Presidency of the network for 2023-2024. In a logic of inclusiveness, it may be joined by an agency from Central Europe or Northern Europe to set up a co-Presidency.
The Practitioners’ Network: a network of development cooperation agencies
The Practitioners’ Network was set up in 2007 as an open platform for European development cooperation organisations. It aims to develop peer-to-peer exchanges, feedback and capitalisation on operational innovations, and the coordination of the activities of the organisations in partner countries. In addition, it is an important channel for cooperation with the European Commission, which has observer status in the network, in particular with the DG INTPA and DG NEAR. The PN structures its activities around thematic working groups and task forces which regularly organise workshops and exchanges (private sector, digital technology, fragility/migration, culture and development, effectiveness of partnerships, contracts and finance…). It is headed by a Presidency and managed by a Steering Committee composed of a Troika including the past Presidency, the current Presidency and the future Presidency, as well as three elected members. For 2022-2023, the committee will be composed of GIZ-CPMA-FIIAPP-SNV-EF for the Troika, along with ENABEL, SIDA and ADA. Following the General Assembly, Expertise France will join the Steering Committee in 2022 under its future Presidency. It will replace AFD in representing AFD Group in the network.
Overall, the PN, as the voice of the practitioners, maintains a regular, direct and close dialogue with the Commission. The objective is to promote the positions of the technical cooperation agencies and provide input for the Commission’s agenda from its members’ operational experiences and innovations. The PN itself not only provides a platform for regular exchanges on European external cooperation, it also contributes to a broader dialogue and greater complementarity between European development actors with a public mandate or the like. It thereby helps create and strengthen strategic bilateral partnerships between the Member State organisations. Through the activities of its working groups, the PN promotes an integrated, pluralistic and innovative approach to European development cooperation and contributes to providing European solutions to global problems. This is fully in line with the recently adopted “Team Europe” approach. In 15 years, the network has managed to successfully establish itself as a key partner for the development activities of European cooperation.
Expertise France, a French technical cooperation agency firmly focused on Europe
In late 2021, the agency’s accreditation to be a delegatee of European financing was renewed. This is a strong sign of the EU’s confidence in Expertise France which will allow it to develop its activities with its partners. It also reflects the resolutely European nature of Expertise France, for which the EU is the main donor. Indeed, Expertise France is both a European and French agency, as half of its financing (51% in 2021) comes from the EU, ahead of the other two main partners: the French State (22%) and Agence Française de Développement (18%).
As Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and the Recovery, said in the annual report “Results & Outlook 2020-2021”, “Expertise France is an agency as European as it is French”. Indeed, half of its financing (51% in 2021) comes from the EU, ahead of the other two main partners: the French State (22%) and Agence Française de Développement (18%).
These European funds allow Expertise France to put together French and European expertise in order to carry out development projects covering a number of themes. It can thereby provide a sustainable response tailored to the needs of people and address the priorities of the European development agenda.
Among the very wide range of cooperation activities with the EU, a prominent example is Expertise France’s role in the implementation of regional programmes for exchanges of expertise between the EU and the Latin America-Caribbean region (EUROsociAL+, EUROCLIMA+, EL PAcCTO) on key issues (biodiversity, climate dialogue, social protection and gender equality, fight against organised crime). These programmes demonstrate all the added value of European public expertise. They contribute to strengthening the integration of the Latin American continent and to structuring the policy dialogue on the global agenda between Europe and Latin America. Beyond ambitions, these projects are implemented in the “European format”, i.e. in partnership with other EU Member States or other European cooperation organisations (GIZ in Germany, Enabel in Belgium, AECID and FIIAPP in Spain, etc.). They reflect the experience of technical cooperation agencies, which will be invaluable for the implementation of Team Europe initiatives.
Expertise France remains engaged with its French and European partners to assist and support French and European strategic priorities. Its European base allows it to deploy its expertise and experience on every continent and to continue to mobilise actors as part of an integrated and inclusive approach. This is reflected at national level through its recent integration into AFD Group, but also at European level where the agency plays a key role in the “Team Europe” approach.