By Martin Banks - 17th June 2010
At today’s meeting EU leaders must show how they will meet their commitments
CONCORD director Olivier Consolo
The EU has been urged to "stick to its commitments" on the millennium development goals.
The appeal, by European parliament president Jerzy Buzek, comes as EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss progress on achieving the MDGs, whose aim is to cut world poverty and malnutrition.
In his opening speech to the summit, Buzek said, "We need to be ambitious if we wish to create a global partnership to eradicate poverty. Despite the crisis, we need to stick to the commitments of the Millennium Development Goals, even though resources are scarce."
His comments were echoed by leading NGOs which want the EU to "step up" its efforts against poverty.
They insist that "only an ambitious, financed action" plan will put the EU back on track to meeting its international commitments and strengthen global efforts to reach the poverty targets.
With the football World Cup underway, activists staged an MDG football-style publicity stunt near the summit venue and warned that the EU "cannot afford to go empty-handed to the United Nations’ MDG summit in September in New York."
The meeting has been called to assess progress on meeting the MDG goals.
Olivier Consolo, director of one of the groups, involved, CONCORD, said, “With only five years remaining, member states must stop blocking progress towards the MDGs and show that they are willing to step forward and score the goals that they agreed back in 2000."
EU development ministers who met on Monday re-stated their commitment to provide 0.7 per cent of national income as aid by 2015 – a target which NGOs claim dates back to the 1970s.
Consolo said, "Their aid target for 2010 will be missed and they have failed to put a comprehensive MDGs action plan into play.
"Without urgent action today from EU leaders, Europe will go to New York this September with nothing more than broken promises.
“Too many EU member states are shooting wide of the mark and blocking global efforts to score the Millennium Development Goals."
“At today’s meeting EU leaders must show how they will meet their commitments and score the goals needed to eradicate poverty”.
EU leaders have spent over €1 trillion "bailing out" the banks – an amount, he said, which is greater than the total of development aid given by the same countries since 1960.
"Rather than using the financial crisis as an excuse to slash aid budgets, EU leaders must seize the opportunities arising from it.
"Innovative policies, such as a tax on financial transactions, can contribute to the stability of financial markets while generating extra money for fighting global poverty, at no cost for the tax payer."
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