As a Member State of the European Union, Portugal participates in the definition of European policy for development co-operation.
In light of that, within the scope of its responsibilities, Camões, I.P. monitors and ensures the articulation of the Portuguese position in the Working Groups of the EU Council on European development co-operation policy:
- Working Party on Development Cooperation (CODEV)
- Working Party on Humanitarian Aid and Food Aid (COHAFA)
- African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP)
Camões, I.P. also represents Portugal on various Funding Committees of the European Commission:
- European Development Fund (EDF) for the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP)
- European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) in support of democracy, good governance, rule of law and human rights in third-world countries
- Development Co-operation Instrument (DCI) with support for geographic programmes (Asia, Latin America and South Africa) along with themed programmes (the environment, non-governmental organisations, food safety and migration)
- Humanitarian Aid Committee
Camões, I.P. prepares and monitors the work of the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) concerning development, the ACP-EU Council of Ministers, the meetings of Directors-General for Development and experts on issues related to the policy of developing co-operation.
Besides participating in the creation of development policies, Portugal as a member state makes a financial contribution towards the implementation of such policies, which are managed by the European Commission.
The European Union is the world's largest provider of development aid. More than half of the globe’s available resources used to support developing countries comes from the European Union and its member states. The main aim of the European Union is the eradication of world poverty in the context of sustainable development. There are two channels of finance for EU development policies:
- Funds from the general EU budget (approximately 50% of the financial resources for development come from this budget)
- The European Development Fund (EDF) for policies relating to the ACP accounts for the remaining 50%.
For EU overseas aid programmes, the procedures for awarding contracts or subsidies for setting up projects vary according to the different project management procedures involved, or in other words the "modes of management". The European Commission is responsible for all the tasks involved in allocating the EU budget, which is done directly by its departments at headquarters, by EU delegations or external agencies. In other situations, the European Commission trusts or delegates budgeting matters to the partner countries or bodies appointed by them, international organisations, member state development agencies or other entities. There are also cases in which the European Commission delegates budgeting duties in the member states (delegated co-operation).