| Belgian Presidency starts on 1 July |
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Belgian NGOs have adopted a Memorandum: ‘Turning the Tide for the Millennium Development Goals’ with political recommendations for the Presidency. The campaign of Belgian NGOs is focusing on 4 themes:
“If Belgium does not want to be embarrassed when presenting the Belgian and European achievements to the international community in September 2010, more resources will be needed for real development cooperation. But more efforts will also be necessary to ensure more coherence in the European policy to support the Development Goals. A reform of the trade policy, of the policy with regard to climate change and the financial policy, in combination with a reinforcement of the multilateral system, should be the pillars of the Belgian EU Presidency’, the Memorandum says.
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A number of major development-related summits will take place during Belgium’s Presidency, namely the United Nations Summit on Millennium Development Goals to be held in New York in September, the EU-Asia Meeting (ASEM) in Brussels in October and the EU-Africa Summit in Tripoli in November. On MDG Summit, the Belgian programme states: “As the major investor, the European Union must play a primary role in the success of the Summit, taking the shared responsibility of aid donors and beneficiary countries as its guiding Principle”. Belgium’s priorities also include fragile states, as well as good governance and the respect and promotion of democracy and human rights. Financing for development and Aid effectiveness will also be subject of particular attention.
