The financialization of EU development policy

Abstract

As the world’s leading donor, the EU plays an important role in the negotiation, design and implementation of the rules of the game underpinning the international architecture of the Official Development Assistance (ODA). Since 2007, the EU has been piloting blended finance initiatives to mobilize and de-risk private sector investments in developing countries. By combining public grants with private finance, blended finance represents the financialization trend of EU development policy. The launch of the EU External Investment Plan (EIP) in 2017 and the recent reforms in EU development finance have only strengthened the “blendification” of EU development policy. Additionally, the financialized EU development policy is now an important instrument in support of EU foreign policy goals. This chapter attempts to explore how the EU development policy is increasingly financialized to serve EU global strategic interests.