Over a seven-year period (2014-2020), the EU dedicated 51.8 billion Euros to its external action. A large share of this funding – 32 billion – is disbursed through nine different thematic and geographic external financial instruments and a Common Implementing Regulation. The current architecture of the instruments lacks strategic and overarching vision and is managed by different services within both the Commission and EEAS. This has proven at times to be inefficient and incoherent. At the same time, legal barriers and institutional structures have prevented flexibility, which has reduced the EU’s capacity to swiftly respond to new and emerging challenges. Read more here.
Source: European Parliament