Exception – this does not apply if a country has been classified by the World Bank as a high or upper-middle income country for 3 consecutive years immediately before the EU updates the list of beneficiary countries

Countries now have the security of knowing that they can be removed from the beneficiary lists only if the UN lists them as high or upper-middle income 3 years in a row.

3. Removals from the beneficiary lists will happen only if countries are listed as high or upper-middle income 3 years in a row.

Under the DCI it is proposed that 17 Upper Middle Income Countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Thailand, Venezuela and Uruguay) and 2 large Lower Middle Income Countries whose GDP is larger than 1% of global GDP (India, Indonesia) graduate to new partnerships that are not based on bilateral aid.

The additional preference will apply even to products from sectors subject to the graduation mechanism, except those coming from countries with per capita earnings above the $6000 mark.

19. The Council asks the Commission to articulate clearly its purposes and role in using official development assistance in middle-income countries, distinguishing between upper middle-income and lower middle-income countries, including: its particular advantages in different contexts; the range of its objectives, policies and approaches and their impact, including on poverty and inequality; the way in which it is implementing the Paris commitments on aid effectiveness; the criteria by which it allocates its resources and the proportion of its aid that is focused on reducing poverty and inequality".