Fiftieth birthday parties tend to be joyous occasions, tempered by a modicum of fear
At this weekend's ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1957 Treaty of Rome, the EU's leaders will doubtlessly proclaim how countries that were bitter foes in the previous decade laid the foundations to a remarkable project of integration.
But rather than dwelling on this undeniable achievement, the Union's leaders should think about how 50 is an unattainable age for a significant proportion of the world's population. Some 10 million children die each year before their fifth birthday, while for much of sub-Saharan Africa the average life expectancy does not exceed 45.
Contrary to what you may think, these issues are of fundamental importance to the EU and its history.
The Treaty of Rome was drafted at a time when European powers had to reassess their relationship with old colonies. No fewer than 23 countries in sub-Saharan African gained independence in 1956-60.
The treaty makes plain that the nascent European community, as it was then, is committed to development aid. With no prospect of a common foreign and security policy at that time, development was to remain the community's principal activity in the wider world for decades.
The Berlin Declaration, which EU leaders will issue this weekend, should recognise that the Union's development activities must have the eradication of poverty as their core objective. Under no circumstances can the rights of the poor be subsumed by more strategic goals of an economic, political or security nature.
Missing the point
Sadly, some of the preparatory documents for the declaration hint that EU policy-makers are missing that point.
These have tied the EU's external relations to a narrow security agenda and a desire to control migration into the Union.
On a weekend when the word "visionary" will probably be used a great deal, this myopia should be avoided.
If development is to be linked to migration and security, then I would urge EU governments to have a broad-minded approach to the surrounding questions.
Genuine human security is not served by a war against terrorism that has been used in many parts of the world, Europe included, as a pretext for denying human rights and civil liberties. Rather, it is served by ensuring that the world's population has proper access to health, education and to decent livelihoods.
Migration, meanwhile, is an inevitable consequence of inequality. The history of some of the EU's own countries illustrates this. The large Italian, Irish and Polish communities in the US have emerged because their ancestors crossed the Atlantic, often in perilous conditions.
So instead of simply pandering to xenophobes, the EU's leaders should reflect on why foreigners come to Europe. As the Union's development aid ministers recognised in a statement on 13 March, the EU can make a positive contribution to addressing the root causes of migration by ensuring that people in developing countries are not condemned to a future of extreme poverty and do not have to leave home for economic reasons.
One tangible result of the Treaty of Rome is that it led to the formation of the European Development Fund for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
The Union's governments have pledged €23 billion to this fund in 2008-13.
Properly spent, this could make a considerable difference to poor countries, including those of sub-Saharan Africa, the only region in the world where poverty has worsened since 1990, according to the UN.
The EU's governments are ostensibly committed to the UN's Millennium Development Goals of drastically reducing extreme poverty by 2015. Yet this has not been translated into the plans for the EDF.
While all eight of the goals have an education or health dimension, the proportion of the EDF being allocated to these sectors is a meagre 2% each.
A colonial mindset?
I implore EU leaders to recognise that their activities will not eradicate poverty unless they devote proper resources to getting the basics of health and education right.
A recurring criticism of EU development policy is that it has been undermined by trade and agricultural policies that negate any good which aid does.
Not only should the EU commit itself to delivering an outcome to the Doha round of world trade talks that will benefit the poor, it should cease pushing other unfair deals on developing countries.
In particular, the EU's leaders need to pay heed to the growing body of opinion against the Economic Partnership Agreements being negotiated with ACP countries. Several studies suggest that far from reducing poverty, these accords would exacerbate it.
The European Commission is pushing a more extensive economic liberalisation on ACP countries than anything being discussed in the Doha talks.
Its view of these countries smacks of a colonial mindset which is more interested in gaining access to their markets and resources, than in helping their populations.
Anyone with a more progressive view of the world would regard this thinking as outdated.
At 50, the EU should be old and wise enough to leave it behind.
Simon Stocker is director of Eurostep, a network of organisations focused on EU-financed development cooperation.
