(Bio)Fueling Injustice? - Europafrica

In its 2006 biofuel strategy already, the European Commission committed that “the EU
will ensure that measures proposed for biofuel development are fully coherent with its
development policy”. 450 It further declared that governance, land ownership,
transparency, participation of local communities to decision-making as well as
corporate social responsibility are particularly important elements for PCD and they
were taken into account in the biofuel policy. 451 It is therefore relevant and legitimate
to review the policy coherence for development of the EU biofuel policy.
While it might be difficult that all EU policies be immediately fully coherent with
development objectives, and while it could be challenging to assess to which extent
each EU policy respects development objectives (for instance by giving a “percentage
of coherence”), it can be considered that PCD entails, as a very minimum, that EU
policies do not blatantly contradict EU development objectives and directly
jeopardise economic and human development in poor countries. This is similar to
the “do not harm” approach, defended by organisations such as Concord, which
suggests that PCD means that EU polices cannot harm developing countries. 452
Though, for various political reasons, the EU considers that PCD also involves to
“highlight the possible benefits of increased coherence, in terms of development,” 453
and although there are without a doubt a number examples of successful coherence, it
is not in the scope of this report to address these cases. Furthermore, the EU itself
essentially intends takes she same “do not harm” approach as it plans to monitor the
social impacts of the EU biofuel policy to correct it if necessary – and not to improve it
so as to maximise the social benefits. With this background, the impact of the EU
biofuel policy can be reviewed against the a few relevant EU development objectives
as set by the European Commission in its official documents.
8.1.1. Food security, sustainable agriculture and small scale farmers
The EU is “strongly committed, both politically and financially, to enhance investment
in sustainable agriculture and food security, particularly in developing countries.” 454
The development of agriculture and the improvement of food security in developing
countries is a key priority of the current Commissioner for development. 455
The EU development policy insists on supporting vulnerable people in a
sustainable way, to “tackle inequalities, in particular to give poor people better access
to land, food, water and energy without harming the environment”. The priority should
go to “locally-developed practices and to “smallholder agriculture and rural
livelihoods.” 456 As part of its strategy on food security, the EU puts the improvement of
smallholder resilience and livelihoods as a priority, and these priorities “should act
as priority benchmarks / indicators for PCD actions on food security.” 457 “Ecologically
efficient agricultural intensification for smallholder farmers, in particular women”
following the findings of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge,
Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) should be promoted, and
vulnerable population groups should be particularly supported. 458 The Council of the
EU specifically emphasised “the potential of poor and smallholder producers to
sustainably contribute to meeting future food demand”. 459 The European Commission
also recognises that “food security strategies need be country-owned and countryspecific,
elaborating an appropriate balance between support to national production
and covering food needs through trade.” 460
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