You can follow all the events from the European Development Days on Twitter, under the hashtag #EDD18.

An enormous industrial structure, filled with spacious storage halls. This former train station, built in the 19th century, used to serve as a storage and customs centre for goods destined to the Kingdom of Belgium, and through the Sint-Jans-Molenbeek canal, to the heart of its golden capital. The brick, stone, and iron building was named Tour and Taxis, the French name for the German aristocratic family which had moved to Belgium in the 16th century and founded the first international postal service there. In the 18th century, its headquarters was moved to Frankfurt, but the structure bearing that name remained in Brussels, and is today used as a congress and exhibition venue.

Those halls, where shipments sent back from Belgian colonies were once handled, hosted today more than eight thousand people – heads of state, prime ministers, government ministers, heads of international institutions, NGOs, and businesses.

A year before the May 2019 European Parliament election, at a time when the old continent is awash by a wave of populism, when the very foundations of European values are questioned, when borders are closing in fear of incoming migration, when fewer and fewer people vote in elections, and when the south of Europe is struggling under the weight of systemic poverty and youth unemployment, the European Development Days (EDD) have launched at Tour and Taxis, like a cherry on top of Europe’s challenges.

The EDD is often referred to as the Davos of development issues. The European Union takes great pride in the fact that it is the most generous aid donor in the world. At the opening ceremony, President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said in despair that Europeans must stop being arrogant and self-centred, that the global situation does not look good, that a new multilateralism must be developed, that Europe needs a partnership with Africa. As he was listing in his speech all the funds and financial plans created to spur development and investments in Africa and third-world countries, a shadow of the newly proposed EU seven-year budget – for the period following UK’s exit from the EU – loomed over him.

Juncker is hoping that the budget would be passed before the European election next year. But the proposed budget both failed to impress many EU member states and was not well received by many non-governmental organisations dealing with development.

Although the amount reserved for foreign aid was increased by 26 percent, to €123 billion, it will remain unclear until June 14 just how much funding will be earmarked for development. The current structure, Interim Brussels director of the ONE campaign told Euractiv, is not fit for this purpose, so it is necessary to create an instrument capable to clearly deal with issues of security, migrations, and sustainable development. And there are also concerns that the European Commission has plans to incorporate the European Development Fund into the EU budget, as well as to merge the twelve existing foreign policy instruments into one.

The issue of financing is a huge problem. The EU member states do not fulfil their obligations equally, and the issue of border security and prevention of migration has taken time, and it seems money as well, from development aid. On the global level, the amounts spent for development aid are stagnating at 0.4 percent of the Gross National Income (GNI), and there is increasingly less political will around to move towards reaching the 0.7 percent that the UN set as target.

International donor organisations are asking for the business sector to fill in the gaps, and the Commission suggested expanding the European Sustainable Investments Fund, so that European budget guarantees could be used for private sector investments into development projects. The European Investment Bank is also surfacing as an important actor in fostering development projects and has promised to create programmes with equal access for men and women, in order to focus on economic empowerment of women.

And the topic of women’s empowerment and gender equality, promoted with the hashtag #SheisWe, is at the centre of this year’s European Development Days. Coming from a European country where the ratification of an international convention to fight violence against women was seriously debated, one cannot help feeling a bit embarrassed when one hears stories in Brussels told by those who are fighting issues like genital mutilation, fundamental reproductive rights, access to vaccines, and generally the basic problems of equality and the status of women in society.

Angelique Kidjo, a Grammy winner, singer and activist from Benin, one of the most famous African women, said that it still hurts to have to discuss gender equality, and the newly-elected President of Liberia, George Weah, a legendary former striker for PSG, Milan, and many other football clubs, told the meeting how he was raised by his grandmother and now finds it very important to empower women in his country, which has been through a brutal war.

“Without women, there is no development,” Weah said, triggering a thunderous applause, and earning praise from the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, who, on account of the speeches they gave, described Weah, along with the presidents of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and Burkina Faso, Roch Kabore, as dedicated feminists.

Among those attending the conference, was a Brussels correspondent from Togo, Anani Soussou, who told me that there were a lot of questions he came here to answer:

“The question of young people, employment, women’s rights, the environment, migrations, these are all things which the European Commission has suggested projects for, and all of us from Africa are curious to see how this will go forward. More than 50 percent of Africa’s population is under 25 years of age, by 2050 we will have a population of two billion, and if the problems are not resolved – from employment issues to the environment – then the biggest outstanding issue will become that of migration.”

Soussou claims that the key issue is that the aid from Europe goes to governments, which are often corrupt in Africa.

“We have an African paradox. We have old regimes, hereditary presidential dynasties, and on the other hand, we have resources, raw materials, dynamic youth, climate opportunities for the development of energy sources, sustainable agriculture, water. Africa is at the heart of all conflicts. We cannot just replace one colonialism era with another. China is present there, and Arab countries, yes, they bring investments, but whatever they produce, they take back home,” Soussou said, adding that he was interested to hear how Africa’s closest northern neighbour will respond to this, because it is already too late.

The issue of border control and migrations has become the common thread linking many of Europe’s policies, including development. Whenever a new fund or aid instrument is inaugurated, one can hear that the goal is to “solve the problem at its root… to develop jobs and investments in Africa…” It is clear that the Commission is increasing the funds for external border protection and preventing migrants from arriving. However, how sustainable can that policy be in the long run if this continues, if member states do not start actively contributing to finding solutions, and instead choose to close their own borders and Europe’s door?

The European development policy department is led by a Croatian politician, Neven Mimica. Many speakers praised him today for his commitment. But, there was nobody else there from Croatia in the audience, apart from MEP Zeljana Zovko.

As a president of a European country, and on invitation from Juncker, Malta’s President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca gave a speech. In it she talked about the importance of the Istanbul convention, about women’s rights. Croatia, as a small country on the edge of Europe, with a history tied to the so-called developing countries, in light of many positive changes linked with the #EDD18 hashtag, could have had excellent representatives in Brussels, who would position it anew in this world map.

Because the world map of developing countries, which this forum talks about, is the map of the future world.

The enormous industrial structure once owned by a 19th century German noble family located on the banks of a canal near Sint-Jans-Molenbeek may one day, like many others on the peripheries of Europe, become completely empty.

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