In November 2000, the Council asked the Commission to draft country strategy papers (CSPs) to provide a common framework for programming Community aid to all developing countries which receive assistance from the European Development Fund (EDF), the Asia/LatinAmerica (ALA) programme and the Mediterranean (MEDA) programme. In November 2000, the Commission adopted the Common Framework for Country Strategy Papers (Commission Staff Working Paper: Community Co-operation: Framework for Country Strategy Papers,15.6.2000, SEC (2000)1049. This "CSP Framework" was later applied by the Commission to the TACIS and CARDS programmes.

On 2 March 2006 the Commission adopted its updated “Common framework for drafting Country Strategy Papers”, contains a rather detailed instruction on the expected content of EC country strategy papers.

Programming documents shall contain a series of key elements and respect the following structure:

1. The framework for relations between the donor and the partner country;
   
2. An analysis of the political (internal and external), economic, commercial, social and environmental situation;
   
3. The partner country’s agenda, including the development strategy;
   
4. An analysis of the viability of current policies and of medium-term challenges, based on the analysis of the country’s situation and its agenda;
   
5. An overview of past and present cooperation with the donor (lessons and experience), taking account of all external aid instruments, complementarity with other donors’ programmes and consistency with other external aid and policy instruments;
   
6. Adescription of the state of the partnership with the country, including political dialogue and progress towards harmonisation;
   
7. The donor’s cooperation strategy and specific objectives, the consistency of the strategy with other external aid instruments and policies, and complementary with other donors;
   
8. On the basis of the elements above, a work programme or National Indicative Programme (NIP) stating measurable objectives, with performance indicators, the contribution to be made by the various donors and the nature and scope of the most appropriate support mechanisms;
   
9. Annexes: a summary table for the country, a short environmental profile, a prospective donor matrix, a migration profile (where necessary) including the international protection aspect, an account of consultations with non-state actors and a harmonisation road map where there is one.

However, the reality shows that the structure of an individual country strategy paper (CSP) can be adapted to the specific context of the country and can vary from one CSP to another.