Policy paper

Working with the EU on international development

Published 3 April 2019

The Political Declaration commits the UK and the EU to continue our dialogue on international development, including how the UK could contribute to EU programmes. It makes sense for the UK and EU to continue working together to alleviate poverty and to tackle shared global challenges.

Until we exit the EU, we will continue to participate as a Member State in EU decision-making and during the implementation period we will continue to uphold the financial commitments we made as a Member State.

In the future, the UK is open to contributing to the EU’s development programmes where it is in the UK and EU’s mutual interest and meets joint objectives.

A condition of any future UK contribution would be that UK organisations must be eligible to implement programmes we choose to fund. Negotiations with the Commission on our future partnership are ongoing.

Guidance: Delivering overseas aid programmes if there’s no Brexit deal