Brussels, 25/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The "Monterrey consensus" which resulted from the UN conference on development financing will not allow the necessary thrust to be given to the global flow of public development aid so that poverty in the world may be reduced by half by the year 2015. To achieve this target set by the international community in September 2000 when it adopted the "millennium declaration", it would have been necessary for the rich countries to pledge to double the total volume of their development financing assistance by that date, bringing it to $100 billion annually. Opposition voiced by the United Sates prevented this subject from being mentioned in the final text. Hence the considerable criticism describing the Monterrey conference as the umpteenth incantatory high mass.
The conclusions of this conference reiterates that: the "achievement of the international community development aims (…) calls for a new partnership between the developed and the developing countries" and makes it a commitment for all to "apply rational policies, establish good governance at every level and ensure primacy of law, mobilise national resources, …/…
attract inward investment, promote international trade as a development catalyst, intensify financial co-operation and international technical development assistance, viable debt financing and an easing of foreign debt and tighten the coherence of international monetary, financial and trading systems.
Far from being a panacea, as far as the European Union is concerned, Monterrey can at least be seen as a positive step in the direction of more concrete measures. Commissioner Poul Nielson's spokesperson said the conference was a success because it had allowed development funding to be increased and agreement on the need to move beyond the Monterrey consensus and prepare for the Johannesburg Summit on sustainable development in September. As the world's leading aid donor, the EU has pledged to increase its aid by $20 billion by 2006, and $7 billion a year from 2006 onwards, which he saw as putting pressure on the other donors and playing a key role in getting the US to pledge to double their aid in three years, providing an additional $1 billion.
Right at the start of the conference, the President of the EU Council, Jose Maria Aznar, confirmed the EU's commitment to redouble its efforts to ensure Monterrey was a starting (rather than finishing) point. Romano Prodi said that they had decided to continue opening up to trade, including in sensitive areas like agriculture, as part of a balanced negotiation of the Doha Agenda.