Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2015-04-29-Speech-3-1436-000"
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"en.20150429.154.3-1436-000"2
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"Mr President, tonight’s debate is extremely important and extremely timely. It is important because sticking to our commitment of 0.7% of international aid is central to remaining credible on the global stage as we prepare for a series of major international summits on development in the coming months. It is timely because we know that the 0.7% issue is central to the debate at the Council meeting which will take place on 26 May.
It is no secret that, in recent years, several Member States have struggled to reach their target. I remind colleagues that the target is 0.7% for the old Member States – if you can still call them old, the 15 – and 0.33% for the ten new Member States. But, despite the economic downturn, four Member States have reached the target – the United Kingdom, Sweden, Luxembourg and Denmark – and another 11 Member States have increased, or maintained, their Official Development Assistance (ODA) levels, and that includes Croatia, Finland and Germany. So it is not all bad news on reaching the target. We now need to build on progress to date and to get the Member States to recommit to 0.7%. We are not asking the Council to make new commitments, but to stick with what has already been agreed – a target first mooted in the 1970s.
The Committee on Development has adopted a report asking for the Council to do this and asking for a sub-target of at least 0.2% of aid to go to least developed countries to ensure that our aid stays firmly focused on poverty reduction. I would like to hear from the Commission how it sees the debate on 0.7% and what importance it attaches to that figure, and from the Council on the progress it is making in discussions between the Member States as they prepare for the Council.
So why is the 0.7% so important? Not because I see aid as the only source of financing for development – not at all – but, when we go to the international conferences for financing for development, like the one in Addis Ababa in July, we need to start talking about releasing a whole new raft of funding sources – domestic resources, including better tax collection, and private sector finance.
But if the EU goes to Addis without recommitting on 0.7%, I am afraid that it will be seen by our partners in developing countries as backtracking and bad faith. So, instead of talking about those new sources of finance, instead of our commitment on ODA acting as a catalyst to get other finance on the table, we will end up only talking about ODA and not talking about the private sector or domestic resources. The Addis working document, the so-called Zero Draft, makes it clear that the 0.7% target is an expected and core element of a successful conference. The language is extremely clear.
The Latvian Presidency has done a great job on development so far. Back in January, in Riga, we launched the European Year for Development 2015. At the time, I said that we wanted a year not just of warm words, but a year of action. On finance, we now need action and money to match. Success in Addis Ababa will pave the way for success in New York in September on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, crucially, because the processes are linked, for success in the climate talks in Paris in December.
So the meeting of the Council on 26 May is crucial. I hope the Commission and Council will work with Parliament in the coming weeks to prepare for the Council, to prepare for Addis, and to lay the foundations for ambitious agreements in Addis, New York and Paris that can form a true, global partnership for sustainable development from 2015 to 2030."@en1
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