| Foreign Affairs Council disappoints NGOs over MDGs |
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Arian Arpa, Executive Director of Intermon Oxfam, said: “With the economic crisis forcing a hundred people below the poverty line every minute, merely recommitting to a 40-year-old promise is nothing short of a scandal. EU Development Ministers have thrown cold water on efforts to get back on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals, and if this is not addressed, Europe cannot look credible in New York.” “It is now up to EU leaders to put a plan on the table to reach their aid commitments, in line with the European Commission's proposals, if they're serious about regaining the trust of the developing world, and their credibility on the global stage. Countries such as the UK and Belgium, which increased aid last year, are demonstrating that delivering on pledges to the poor is doable, if there is political will.” NGOs have welcomed the Council’s proposal to support a country by country reporting standard for multinational companies (MNCs), as well as the Conclusions on the need to find new sources to finance development and to address the impact of tax havens on developing counties, and the EU’s commitment to “take development objectives into account in non-development policies that are likely to affect developing countries.” However, they stress that tougher commitments and plans are necessary to turn these words into action. Eurodad, a European NGO network, responded that the Conclusions “turn a blind eye to key issues on aid effectiveness, capital flight, developing country debt and the reform of the International Financial Institutions, which are fundamental to supporting the world’s poorest countries recover from the crisis, and to putting reforms in to place that contribute effectively to achieving the MDGs.” Concord, another NGO network, has voiced its concern that the Conclusions “contain too many calls from the European Union (EU) to others with little commitment or action from the EU side...the EU needs to set the example as the world’s largest donor, especially on issues such as ODA and Policy Coherence for Development (PCD). The conclusions favour an action-oriented approach without proposing an action or breakthrough plan on the EU side.” Concord adds: “We welcome that the EU is seriously considering innovative financing for development. It needs to be ensured that these additional resources are used for development purposes only, in particular for the achievement of the MDGs. The EU should support the establishment of a financial transaction tax of 0.05% which could raise EUR 10 billion a year for development.” Sources:
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The EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, meeting last week in Luxembourg, has adopted a number of Conclusions on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which will form the basis of the EU’s negotiating position for the UN MDG review summit in New York in September. NGOs have widely criticised the conclusions as lacking ambition, particularly the failure to agree binding targets for achieving the 40-year-old promise of giving 0.7% of national income in aid, as was proposed by Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs in April. NGOs are naturally sceptical of member states’ promises to increase aid while these same governments are already falling €19 billion short of their 2010 aid targets.
