Guidelines on the Programming, Design and Management of General Budget Support

Guidelines n°7 Budget Support

Budget support is an aid modality. It should not be seen as an end in itself, but as a means of delivering better aid and achieving sustainable development results. It involves i) dialogue, ii) financial transfers to the national treasury account of the partner country, iii) performance assessment and iv) capacity development, based on partnership and mutual accountability.

These Guidelines have been prepared by unit DEVCO “Budget Support, Public Finance and Macroeconomic Analysis” of the EuropeAid in close collaboration with all DEVCO Directorates and the EEAS and has benefited from many discussions and contributions received from staff in Headquarters and EU Delegations.

The Guidelines reflect the new policy on budget support spelled out in the Communication “The Future Approach to EU Budget Support to Third Countries” (October 2011) and corresponding Council Conclusions (May 2012), and replace the previous Guidelines on General Budget Support of January 2007 as well as the previous Guidelines on Support to Sector Programmes of July 2007 as regards to Sector Budget Support.

In light of the experience in using these Guidelines, it is planned to make modifications and adaptations as and when necessary.

To help in this work, comments, questions and suggestions are welcomed and should be sent to unit DEVCO/A4 at europeaid-a4@ec.europa.eu.