The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Landau Report on ‘New International Financial Contributions for Development’, commissioned in November 2003 by President Chirac,

–  having regard to the proposal for an International Finance Facility (IFF), which could double the amount of development aid, put forward by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown and International Development Secretary Clare Short,

–  having regard to the solidarity contribution on French plane tickets, which will enter into force on 1 July 2006 and might bring up to €200 million in supplementary resources for developing countries,

–  having regard to the Commission’s paper on an analysis of a possible contribution based on airline tickets as a new source of financing for development,

–  having regard to the Conclusions of the Gleneagles Summit of July 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 Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas sound development policies, sustained by substantial 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 the objective of helping Africa to achieve the MDGs by the target year of 2015 cannot be attained unless an additional political and financial commitment is made to Africa,

C.  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. the effectiveness of aid must be improved through the 3 C’s – coordination, complementarity and coherence – as well as by reducing transaction costs of aid, creating more predictable and sustainable aid mechanisms, increasing the speed and delivery of aid, further untying aid, finding solutions to unsustainable debt burdens, promoting good governance and duly 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 jeopardise 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, including Member States’ initiatives to increase spending on development from within their national budgets and to achieve the 0.7% GDP budget ahead of schedule; notes specific initiatives taken by the French and British governments in the field of innovative financing mechanisms;

7.  Stresses that national sovereignty, especially in matters of taxation not subject to EU harmonisation policy, 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.