The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Conclusions of the Gleneagles Summit of July 2005,

–  having regard to the European Consensus on Development, adopted jointly by the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament in December 2005,

–  having regard to the 'EU Strategy for Africa: Towards a Euro-African Pact to accelerate Africa's Development' (COM (2005)0489),

–  having regard to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness of March 2005,

–  having regard to the Millennium Development Goals Progress Report 2005,

–  having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas sound development policies, sustained by substantial and effective development aid, are crucial to break the spiral of poverty and give developing countries the means to release their economic potential and join in the process of globalisation,

B.  whereas no amount of development aid will ever break the cycle of poverty in developing countries until they have sufficient capacity to absorb the aid, implement good governance and fight corruption,

C.  whereas the Millennium Development Goals Progress Report 2005 provides clear evidence that the objective of helping poor countries achieve the MDGs by the target year of 2015 cannot be achieved unless additional political and financial commitments are made in terms of quantity as well as quality of aid,

D.  whereas the quality of aid is as important as its quantity,

1.  Warmly welcomes the Council agreement reached in June 2005 to double EU aid to developing countries and for Member States to increase their Official Development Assistance in order to achieve 0.56 % of GNI by 2010 and 0.7 % of GNI by 2015;

2.  Welcomes the renewed commitments by the international community at the UN World Summit of 14-16 September 2005 to achieving the MDGs and to promoting sustainable development; regrets the lack of a precise timetable committing all developed countries to the pursuit of the intermediate and final MDG targets;

3.  Calls on developed countries to fulfil their obligations and meet their commitment to increase national aid budgets to 0.7% of GDP, and considers that the search for innovative forms of financing should not be an escape route to avoid this real priority;

4.  Stresses that an increase in quantity must go hand in hand with an increase in quality, i.e. that the effectiveness of aid must be improved through the 3 Cs – coordination, complementarity, coherence – as well as by reducing aid transaction costs, improving the predictability and sustainability of aid mechanisms, increasing the speed and delivery of aid, further untying aid, finding solutions to unsustainable debt burdens, promoting good governance and combating corruption, and increasing the absorption capacity of aid recipients;

5.  Stresses that the full support of European citizens, in the context of an extremely tense budgetary situation, is required for any new initiative to be managed cautiously so as not to prejudice the acceptance by European opinion of development policy objectives;

6.  Considers that each country may use its own means to reach the overall consensus on the legitimate goals of poverty reduction, and notes specific initiatives taken by some Member States, in the context of the Millennium Review Summit, to develop and implement innovative financing mechanisms, such as a contribution on airline tickets, to enable financing development projects, in particular in the health sector;

7.  Stresses that national sovereignty, especially in matters of taxation, is untouchable;

8.  Welcomes, in the context of innovative financing, the newly announced launching of a Commission - European Investment Bank Trust Fund to finance African infrastructure; calls for an increase in the lending activities of the EIB in developing countries;

9.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the United Nations and the World Bank.