ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Europe's drive for international competitiveness is transforming efforts to improve the environmental performance of European development cooperation programmes. It starts by reviewing the three strategic driving forces for European aid flows to developing countries - national security, economic advantage and the moral imperative of development - within which environmental sustainability has traditionally had a low priority. The chapter then traces the efforts of the European Union to 'green' its aid programme in recent years, before turning to the current crisis facing aid and the competing priorities that could shape its future. Competitiveness is one of these priorities, and the chapter describes three ways in which competitiveness can impact upon the environmental quality of aid programmes. The chapter closes with a set of five conclusions for coping with the EU's triple challenge of competitiveness, environmental sustainability and development cooperation.
