1 March Development Council informal

EU DEVELOPMENT ministers called for more coherence in the Union's foreign policy, arguing that many of its development aims were cancelled out by agriculture and fisheries strategies. They added that as the CAP was being reformed, this was a perfect time to build mechanisms into it to respect developing countries and their needs. Ministers also said that the Union's external fisheries policy needed to be more sensitive to development. The possibility of joint councils between development ministers and their counterparts in other fields was floated by the presidency. Dutch Minister Jan Pronk promised to circulate a discussion paper in time for the June Development Council.