The European Union Members of Parliament led the discussion on the modernised EU development policy. Mr Cashman presented the background and indicated that over the past 10 years, the EU had worked hard to improve the impact of its development cooperation on poverty reduction and the other important goals established by the EU's founding treaties, federating Member States around shared policy approaches and the aid effectiveness agenda, modernising its partnerships and cooperation agreements as well as its financial instruments, and putting in place mechanisms to ensure greater policy coherence for development.