Ecuador

The new JOINT PROGRAMMING (JP) 2021-2023 AND JOINT VISION 2021-2027 OF THE EUROPEAN UNION AND ITS MEMBER STATES IN ECUADOR is launched in March 2021 in Quito.

It is signed by Team Europe in Ecuador, meaning the EU, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary and Spain. Team Europe selected the following 3 strategic objectives (2027), in alignment with the 2030 Agenda:

1- Promote sustainable economic partnerships (2030 Agenda: Prosperity)

On the one hand, this objective reflects a shared interest between Ecuador and European countries to promote, within the framework of the new trade agreement between the EU and Ecuador, a balanced, bilateral economic partnership. On the other, this objective is also about promoting and supporting Ecuador´s regional integration, as well as other types of South-South partnerships.

2- Strengthen Alliances for the fight against Climate Change and the protection of the Environment (2030 Agenda: Planet).

This is a key priority, shared by all European countries and the Ecuadorian government. To facilitate ownership at the level of Ecuador´s population, a rights-based and people-centred approach will be adopted to ensure that social and economic needs are systematically taken into account.

3- Strengthen Social, Political, Institutional and Democratic Stability (2030 Agenda: Peace and People). It is understood that this objective incorporates, under the aspect of “social stability”, the social sectors as well as employment.

The discussions about the more operational, cooperation-specific objectives culminated in the indicative selection of 3 specific objectives and 18 sub-objectives. The consensus in the group was that these objectives could be subject to further rounds of review, so as to rationalise subobjectives and to allow for input from Heads of Mission as well as European donors without country presence. In addition, a number of priority groups and cross-cutting issues were selected.

Preparatory work in 2019-2020:

In September 2019, Heads of Cooperation and Heads of Mission from 6 European representations in Ecuador (Germany; France; Italy; Spain; EU; Hungary) participated in four half-day joint programming workshops and briefings. In addition to that, consultations were conducted with government, private sector, civil society, local authorities and United Nations representatives about the added value of a joint Team Europe (EU and participating EU Member States) approach in the selected strategic areas of shared interest (3 strategic objectives below), whose input and recommendations were taken into account for the selection of the specific joint programming objectives. 

In 2020, a preliminary agreement was reached within the European group on the format and duration of the joint strategy, namely: While awaiting the adoption of the new National Development Plan in 2022/23, a first joint programming phase would involve a transitional joint strategy whose joint response will focus on two types of objectives:

1. Strategic / Political Objectives, based on shared interests between the European Union as a whole and Ecuador, and valid until 2027 (date of completion of the EU Multiannual Indicative Programme and final year of the next National Development Plan (NDP)).

2. Operational / cooperation-specific objectives for 2020-2023, aligned with the objectives of the current NDP (2017-21), and which will be subject to a revision in 2022, so as to adapt them to the new NDP and changing national circumstances.

The joint strategy is more strategic and less cooperation-focused. Accordingly, it was agreed to progressively seek a more systematic involvement of the heads of mission, political and commerce sections / chambers in the joint programming process, which should take the process beyond development cooperation, in line with the principles of the 2030 Agenda. Joint financial allocations within the strategy should, accordingly, also show non-ODA contributions of European Partners in Ecuador.