Team Europe: a European foreign action guided by shared values

The mobilisation of knowledge from the public sector expertise of Europe and its Member States is key to achieving the strategic priorities of the European Union. Established by the Von Der Leyen Commission, the goal is to achieve a stronger Europe in the world. It is therefore necessary that the European Union and its Member States should defend rules-based multilateralism and work hand in hand with partner countries through international alliances between peers, guided by their shared values. 

Promoted by the FIIAPP through the Practitioners’ Network, and from the cooperation service of the European Commission (INTPA) the ‘Study on the mobilisation of the public sector expertise for the development of the EU and its member states’. Based on the results and recommendations of a first phase diagnosis has just been published. This study analyses and presents the added value of mobilising public sector expertise as an innovative form of cooperation and a catalyst to build international alliances for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. 

Multiple factors drive the institutions of the EU and its Member States to use public sector expertise. In this regard, the study highlights how the current programming exercise for the new NDICI-Global Europe  instrument of cooperation and the Team Europe initiatives offer a great opportunity to deploy the full strategic potential of European public expertise in working with partner countries. In short, for a rules-based multilateralism, since the public sector expertise promotes European values, standards and regulations. 

Despite the existence of some challenges from the operational, legal, administrative and/or institutional point of view, the European Union and its Member States share an interest in making the mobilisation of the public sector expertise more visible and increasing its scope in the coming years, as well as ensuring that its full potential is capitalised upon, for instance, as a tool to put the policy first principle into practice, ensuring policy coherence: investments and financial cooperation actions in the partner countries that are sustainable and aimed at those areas defined as priority to achieve development results. 

Furthermore, the Team Europe approach creates more space to ‘Work Better Together’ and continue to advance in a more inclusive European cooperation system; public sector expertise is key to promoting progress in both agendas. 

This exercise of analysis constitutes an important milestone in European public technical cooperation in the coming years; more than an arrival point, it opens the way for reflection and structured dialogue between the group of players on how Europe, with the added value and differentiating element of its wide stock of public expertise, can contribute to the construction of innovative, strategic and inclusive alliances, with a transforming impact for sustainable development.