| Abstract: | Aid to middle‐income countries has become one of the most discussed issues among development researchers and in the current modernisation of the development policy of the European Union. This article argues that the question needs to be dealt with in the context of two interlinked challenges: (i) the need to reconceptualise dominant approaches to global poverty reduction beyond national income, and (ii) the growing range of global challenges and the strategically important role of middle‐income countries. For EU development policy, the implications are twofold: (i) a better‐co‐ordinated cross‐country division of labour, and (ii) a diversification of objectives towards a global rationale of development policy involving closer co‐ordination with other EU external policies. |
