The role of the European Union in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals MDGs

PURPOSE: to present a Commission communication on accelerating progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals – financing for development and aid effectiveness.

CONTENT: the Communication outlines a way towards a possible new interim target for increased Official Development Assistance (ODA) volumes in the EU by 2010 and towards the UN target for ODA of 0.7% Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015. It suggests new aid modalities as well as a line on innovative finance sources and proposes ways to address the remaining post-Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt problems of low income countries. With regard to Global Public Goods it suggests redefining the EU commitment. On coordination and harmonisation the main challenge ahead lies in credible implementation of the recently agreed EU framework as well as of the results of the recent High Level Forum on aid effectiveness and concrete steps forward on complementarity in aid delivery. The commitment on reform of the International Finance System must be strengthened.

The EU is well on track to deliver on most of the “Barcelona commitments”. The UN High Level Event in September 2005 will focus on how to accelerate progress towards attaining the MDGs, especially in Africa. This challenges the enlarged EU to again demonstrate its commitment to addressing the Financing for Development (FfD) challenge through reinforced EU commitments. With the proposals included in this document, the Commission intends to initiate a discussion with a view to establishing a new set of commitments and to reach an agreement on “Barcelona II”-type commitments. Whereas this Communication focuses on the tools for improved FfD, the Communication on Policy Coherenceproposes other policy measures that could be undertaken to support the achievement of the MDGs.