The European Union and its member countries, at an aggregate level, represent the largest source of Official Development Assistance on a global scale (OCSE-DAC). In 2017, the European Union endorsed the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda and placed them at the helm of its cooperation action through the “New European Consensus on Development”, a strategic reference framework for EU institutions and member countries.
The Italian Cooperation system has a two-way relationship with the European Union. According to Art. 6 of Law 125/2014, Italy on the one hand “participates in the definition of the European Union’s development aid policy, contributes to the European Union’s budget and funds and harmonises its own guidelines and programming lines with those of the European Union, favouring the implementation of joint projects”, and on the other hand “contributes to the implementation of European development aid programmes, also by participating in indirect centralised management, usually through the Agency.”
In 2018, the Agency completed the accreditation process as a qualified institution for the indirect management of European funding. Since then, AICS has taken full ownership of delegated cooperation initiatives.
