Dynamics of EU Central and Eastern European donors’ development cooperation

Abstract

The article deals with both qualitative and quantitative aspects of development assistance provided by the 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that are members of the European Union (EU). The aim is to answer the question of what are the major determinants of their involvement in development cooperation. It also aims to understand the controversy surrounding the development policies of these donors and to assess the impact of past determinants on the current situation. Our study employs a combination of data analysis (based on Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – OECD – statistics) and a literature review. In order to allow the examination of trends, constant prices have been applied throughout the study. Our research operates both on absolute (volumes of development aid given to and offered by the countries in mind) and relative data (bilateral to total ODA ratio and regional distribution of bilateral aid). The analysis reveals that the CEE EU donors’ spending on development assistance grew 463% over the 2004–2021 period. In 2021, they accounted for 2.4% of global aid, which was not a significant share globally, though noteworthy at the level of EU development aid spending. We found a clear dominance of the multilateral channel in the distribution of CEE EU aid fluctuating between 65–90%, mainly through EU institutions. In terms of bilateral activities, CEE donors chose their poorer European neighbours as their main aid recipients, with the share ranging from 24% to 76%. There are two main types of factors that determine the aid activities of the actors analysed: interests, which set the course of bilateral flows, and institutional factors (i.e., EU development policy and countries' accession to the OECD Development Assistance Committee), which played an equally important role. The relative importance of the two determinants has varied with changing circumstances over time.