With the Enlargement which took place in 2004 ten New Member States[1] joined the EU, after having complied with the Accession criteria. Besides the political and economic criteria, this meant accepting the Community Acquis, based on the Treaty on the European Union.  As development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (Articles 177 to 181) are part and parcel of the Community Acquis, it meant that the national administrations of the New Member States had to start (re-) developing their own national policies within the overall context of the development policies of the EU. While Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) existed in the New Member States they lacked the capacity to engage with their national administrations in a meaningful dialogue on development cooperation and humanitarian aid and establish themselves as relevant stakeholders in the process of developing and implementing cooperation and humanitarian aid policies, both at national and EU level. It is in this context that the Presidency Fund (PF) was established in 2005.

[1] Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.