Brussels, 30 November 2011 - Speaking at the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4), Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, will today present the European Union's new proposals to make its aid more effective: EU Joint Programming, which will involve EU donors working together on aid delivery and then dividing the work needed in the most efficient way, and an EU Transparency Guarantee, which means that EU Member states will publicly disclose all information on aid programmes so that it can be more easily accessed, shared and published.

On November 06, 2011 , heath and forest fires were reported in the mountain region near Sibiu in Romania.
The map shows the burnt area extent derived by semiautomatic image analysis of SPOT-S data (2.S m resolution) acquired on November 08, 2011. As derived from the analysis of the satellite data an area of about 41 hectares mainly covered by natural grassland burnt down up to this date. A breakdown of the type of burnt land cover is given in the table. Furthermore a more detailed view of the detected burnt areas is shown in the zoom boxes.

Summary: 21 November 2011, Brussels - Benin receives support from the European Commission in two main areas: transport/infrastructure and governance. Between 2008 and 2013, Benin will benefit from total EU funding of €420 million, from both the European Development Fund (EDF) and the EU budget; mainly in those two sectors.

The programming also supports a budget support programme as well as activities in areas like private sector development and civil society. Benin received EDF funding of €13 million in 2010.

Brussels, 08 November 2011 -- Today the European Commission has approved a programme aimed at improving living conditions for the poor and stimulating job creation in rural areas in Egypt by supporting the development of agricultural Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Brussels, 07 November 2011 - Tomorrow, European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs will arrive in Uganda for a two-day visit. Together with government and private sector representatives he will explore how to improve access to financing for small and medium enterprises in agriculture and the agribusiness through public-private partnerships. The Commissioner will also inaugurate an EU-funded road that is essential for cross-border trade in the region. He will meet, among others, President Yoweri Museveni and Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi.