Overcoming inconsistencies between the Energy Charter Treaty and multilateral agreements in favour of development This opinion concerns decisions to be made before the important deadline of June 2022 in the context of the ongoing renegotiation process of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) that was concluded in the 1990s. This deadline is an opportunity to overcome […]

The UN Global Social Protection Fund Opinion of the Advisory Council on Policy Coherence for Development on the UN Global Social Protection Fund. This opinion was ratified by the Advisory Council on Policy Coherence for Development on 25 October 2021. The original opinion was drafted in Dutch.

This reports comes at the end of the mandate of the Advisory Council on Policy Coherence for Development. It presents the Council’s vision on policy coherence together with an overview of its recommendations and recent developments in the field of policy coherence for development. It analyses whether policy coherence for development mechanisms in general have […]

On 12 December 2017, Belgium officially presented its National Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights. In this opinion, the Advisory Council on Policy Coherence for Development identifies strengthening human rights due diligence of businesses as one area where the NAP could be improved, and where Belgium could further demonstrate its commitment towards the […]

The subject of this opinion is European and Belgian policymaking in the field of biofuels in transport, in the context of Belgium’s National Energy-Climate Plan 2030 and the 2018/2001 Renewable Energies Directive (2021-2030). This directive allows Member States to reduce and even eliminate the objectives to incorporate first generation biofuels into fuel, which have proven […]

This opinion analyses how the principle of policy coherence for development is incorporated into the preliminary draft law in its version of 25 October 2018 (second reading in the Council of Ministers), in particular in relation to the new concept of a comprehensive approach. It also analyses the way in which the issue of migration […]

This opinion deals with arms sales to Saudi Arabia and their consequences on human rights violations and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen that has been torn by a civil war since 2014. The opinion pays particular attention to the role of Belgium in arms exports to Saudi Arabia. It puts forward recommendations that aim to […]

Belgium’s economic and commercial relations with Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories This opinion notes that the policies pursued by the State of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories directly or indirectly lead to the cancellation or weakening of the positive impacts of the development aid that Belgium provides there. The occupied Palestinian territories […]

This opinion relates to blended finance. It pays particular attention to the debate currently on-going within the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). It makes recommendations to ensure that the additional financing made possible by blending is aligned with human rights, the SDGs and meets the criteria of aid effectiveness.  

Opinion of the Advisory Council on Policy Coherence for Development “Decision-making in trade policy” This opinion relates to decision-making in Belgium’s policy on trade. It analyzed the political decision making process and make recommendations to have trade policy coherent with development.