By Nicola Smith - 1st June 2004
Pop icon Bono on Tuesday condemned EU governments for failing to live up to promises on aid for Africa.
The U2 singer, who met with European development ministers in Dublin, said it was time for the EU to up its aid efforts.
“We are after billions, not millions,” he said, reported by PA. “And that’s what it’s going to take to sort out the problems of our next door neighbour.”
The rock star is calling on all developed nations to honour pledges to give 0.7 per cent GNP in aid to the world’s poorest countries.
“There’s a general feeling in some camps that because they are doing well their economies can’t afford the commitment of 0.7 per cent and it’s going to be more money than they thought.”
“A lot of these people are doing some great things, but there are promises being broken and that’s unacceptable. You can’t make promises and not keep them,” he charged.
And Bono rounded on the EU for failing to spend vital aid money that had already been pledged.
“There are bureaucratic bottle-necks going on. People have pledged 14 billion dollars to the EU but the EU hasn’t found a way of spending it.”
“At a time when 6500 Africans are dying every day of AIDS, that’s not the Europe I want to be in.”
But a spokesman for EU development commissioner Poul Nielson said Bono should take a closer look at the EU's reform efforts before launching into "automatic pilot" criticisms.
"When this commission took over, it engaged itself in a very important reform process of our external aid. In the last year, these reform efforts are now showing clear results," said Jean-Charles Ellerman-Kingcombe.
"Bono would be doing us all a favour by looking into what we have achieved and launching his criticism from that basis."
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