Abstract: The European Union (EU) plays a crucial role in the international development process, as it is the biggest global aid donor providing more that half of the world’s development aid. The paper analyses institutional architecture of the EU development policy. It starts with evolution of EU development policy, outlines its legislative framework, key milestones and main objectives. The author further focuses on EU institutions that play pivotal roles in organization, administration and management of the EU development policy, i.e. European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the EU. The paper explores roles, competencies and policy-making processes in these institutions from the development aid perspective and evaluates how the development aid reform aimed at better coordination and consistency of EU aid activities has affected them. It primarily addresses processes of de-concentration and the pursuit of coherence, complementarity and coordination.

Keywords: European Union, development aid, institutions, European Commission, European Parliament, Council of the EU