Gay Mitchell (PPE). - Madam President, may I first of all thank Thijs Berman for his work on this as rapporteur over a long period of time. I know how difficult it was as I was the rapporteur for DCI mark 1. We did not get delegated acts at a country level, but we did get them on a regional level and we did get 20% of the entire DCI going to basic social services with a focus on health and education.

I would like to put it on the record that I regret that those who have conscientious objections to the terms ‘and rights’ in relation to sexual and reproductive health and rights will not have a separate vote. Regrettably that may make people vote against this. However, the important thing is that 23 000 children are dying every single day in the developing world. The good news is that it used to be 36 000. Those 13 000 children per day are living because of efforts like this in the DCI and we can bring that figure right down. I think this is a good day’s work in the efforts towards achieving that.