Disclaimer: DRAFT How are new EU member state and small state actor included in EU development politics? Introduction
The primary objective of this paper is to map and analyse the inclusion of new European Union Member States, particularly Baltic and Central and Eastern European countries, in European Union’s policy making and implementation. The paper is concerned with the inclusion of a variety of stakeholders from these countries, such as policy-makers, national development agencies, Non-Governmental Organisations, private sector entities. As defined by Schmidt and Wood (2019), including these actors ‘means that policy-makers are open to all such groups, and bring them in in such a way as to ensure balance in their representation.’ (Schmidt, Wood, 2019, p.733). Two types of stakeholders can be included in EU policy making and implementation - Member States and national institutions/agencies, and non-government entities, such as NGOs, CSOs, and private sector entities.
Since the breakout of COVID-19, the European Union has started to emphasize the unity of EU member states in their response to the pandemic. This approach has trickled down to other policy areas, such as development cooperation, and resulted in the narrative and programmes of Team Europe. Team Europe has pledged €40.5 billion and is attempting to combine European expertise and resources to help developing countries address health and economic needs after the pandemic (Pleeck, Gavas, 2021). In this context, it is important to talk about what newer EU MS can offer to EU’s development cooperation, how they are included in it and how inclusiveness can be further fostered.
This paper aims to inform both EU and Baltic policy-makers about the views that different stakeholders have about inclusiveness, the general importance and benefits of being inclusive, and the challenges that small states face when trying to participate in development cooperation. Baltic and EU officials might see the issue of inclusiveness differently, hence this paper tries to converge different stakeholders’ ideas and inform both sides about the possible steps to involve more actors into EU development cooperation and make development policy more effective. Furthermore, one of the interviewees noted that although the topic of inclusiveness is well known to EU policy makers, it is quite new to research (Research Interview, 2021). Hence, this paper also attempts to make a contribution to the better understanding of inclusiveness in the research community and encourage the wider exploration of this issue.