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"More and better" aid the rallying cry as MPs, MEPs and NGOs meet
Development and cooperation - 05-10-2006 - 17:01
Refugees from the crisis in Darfur, Sudan
The European Union is the world's largest contributor of development aid - with annual donations of some €7 billion to over 150 countries and territories. Ensuring that it gets to the people who need it most is vital. How to achieve this is one of the topics under discussion in a development committee seminar being held today on "Co-ordinating EU and national development policies". The goal is to avoid duplication and fragmentation so as to deliver "more and better" aid.
Last year the European Parliament and other EU institutions agreed a "European consensus" policy statement on development which they hope will lead to better coordination of aid at a national and European level. It restated the "Millennium Development Goals" of halving extreme poverty, tackling the spread of AIDS and universal primary education by 2015.
European Union states also agreed to raise the level of development aid to 0.56% of gross national income by 2010 - thus guaranteeing an extra €20 billion in aid.
MEPs last week adopted a resolution on "aid effectiveness" based on a report by Belgian Socialist Alain Hutchinson in which it noted that “the European Union supplies more than half of all public aid in the world and is thus the world’s largest aid provider”, but that “this position does not translate into effective leadership".
It went on to say "the lack of consistency between the various EU policies is an obstacle to aid effectiveness" and called for EU members and the European Commission (which manages EU aid at a European level) to "speak with one voice". The seminar Wednesday will hear from a variety of experts in the field and will include debates on trade and development, EU development policy and the complexity of coordinating donor organisations and countries.
Speakers include the Chair of the development committee, Luisa Morgantini, Swedish Christian Democrat Anders Wijkman - who drafted a report for MEPs on the "European Consensus" and the European Commissioner for development policy, Louis Michel. National MPs, MEPs and representatives of NGOs will also address the conference.
REF.: 20061004STO11325