Brussels, 01/08/2012 (Agence Europe) - European Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has been appointed a member of the High Level Panel put in place by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to consider the post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda beyond 2015, the deadline set in 2000 for the achievement of the Goals, the European Commission announced on 1 August.
The 26-member advisory panel will be co-chaired by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, President of Liberia Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, and President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and will meet for the first time in September. “I'm honoured to be a member of the Panel advising the Secretary General on the next milestones of development agenda. This is a recognition of the European Union's firm commitment to freeing people from the grip of poverty”, Piebalgs said in a press release. Hailing the role of catalyst played by the MDGs in mobilising the international community on key targets in tackling poverty, the commissioner said that, together with the other members of the Panel, he “will work on recommendations to provide a new vision and concrete proposals to support the world, and above all the developing countries, on the track of sustainable and inclusive growth”.
To gather the view points of all interested parties, the European Commission launched a three-month public consultation, “Towards a Post-2015 Development Framework”, on 15 June.
The work of UN High Level Panel on the post-Millennium Development Goals agenda beyond 2015 will be closely coordinated with the international working group on Sustainable Development Goals, agreed at the Rio+20 conference. (AN/transl.rt)