Brussels, 14/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - Eradicating extreme poverty in the world by 2030 is the main target that the international community should set itself for the post-2015 period, according to EU development ministers, eager to speak with a single voice in the international negotiations on future development goals when the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set out in 2000 expire. The MDG aim to reduce global poverty by half by 2015. Ministers consider that, if they are to achieve this objective, the EU should agree on a raft of common targets taking into account the progress already made towards attaining the MDG and meeting the global challenge of environmental sustainability.
They expressed this wish during the informal Development Council on 12 February in Dublin, chaired by Joe Costello, the Irish minister for trade and development. The meeting provided an opportunity for the first detailed discussion among EU member states on the new framework that will guide international-level development efforts. At the end of the session, Costello said that obtaining a united EU position in these negotiations was one of the main priorities of the Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers and that this question would be at the top of the international agenda over the next two weeks. He was delighted by the determination shown by ministers to achieve consensus on a series of post-2015 objectives, including environmental sustainability. He said that their objective was to eradicate extreme poverty within a generation. He also said that they were convinced that they were persuaded they had a historic opportunity to achieve this aim.
Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development and a member of the UN's high-level reflection group on this issue, participated in the exchange of views, as did Janez Potocnik, Commissioner for the Environment, Mary Robinson, former President of the Irish Republic and Amina Mohammed, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon. (AN/transl.fl)