Much ado about nothing? The European Union and the global politics of untying aid

This article has two main purposes. The first is that of providing a longitudinal analysis of the global politics of untying aid, by looking at a number of debates that have occurred within the Development Assistance Committee and in the context of a number of high-level forums on aid effectiveness. The second is that of proposing some explanations for the lack of significant progress in these contexts. The focus is on the European Union (EU), which has been widely perceived as one of the most fervent supporters of promoting the aid untying agenda. In all these debates, the EU's leadership aspirations have remained largely unfulfilled. Thus, the EU has failed to adopt a EU-wide vision on aid untying; persuade non-EU donors to untie their aid, even when it has played the reciprocity card; and promote a pro-poor use of foreign aid, by supporting local ownership and facilitating greater access of developing country firms to aid contracts