Brussels, 18/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Council of 17 June disappointed development NGOs which had been hoping to hear more on both the EU's 2020 climate target and on pledges on realising the Millennium Development Goals (MDOs) (see EUROPE 10162).
In a press release published on Thursday, Oxfam International criticises EU heads of state and government for failing to put new commitments on the table on achieving their public aid for development targets by 2015, when, in 2010, the EU has fallen €19 billion short of its intermediate target of 0.56% of GNI.
“European heads of state have shied away from the difficult decisions, and undermined the global fight against poverty,” said Oxfam. It congratulated UK Prime Minister David Cameron for succeeding in getting the European Council to agree to review progress on increasing aid levels annually. “Thanks to a final push led by the UK, a last minute addition was made to the text ensuring greater accountability and transparency on EU aid commitments. From now on, heads of state will be answerable to their counterparts for their aid performances every year - an important step towards increasing trust in Europe's promises towards developing countries,” said Elise Ford, Head of Oxfam's EU Office.
Catholic NGOs CIDSE and APRODEV are hoping that the next European summit, in the autumn, will see the EU make the leap from a 20% to a 30% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 and so reassert itself as a global climate leader. “The EU's current target isn't even enough to meet its own commitment to limiting further global warming to 2°C. As a major historical polluter, the EU has a duty to step up its ambitions,” said CIDSE Secretary General Bernd Nilles. Rob van Drimmelen, Secretary General of APRODEV, said that “the EU should move ahead because it can, because it's in the EU's own interest to do so, and because it's morally the right thing to do”. Both take the view that 30% should be a first step on the way to the more ambitious target of 40% reductions by industrialised countries. (A.N./transl.rt)