Brussels, 14/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, has welcomed the simultaneous publication in London and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) of the report by the Commission for Africa, inviting the world to take action for the development of the continent of Africa.
The four hundred-page report, which was presented last Friday by Tony Blair, calls on the rich countries to double their aid to Africa in ten years, to cancel all debts of African countries and to make the fight against AIDS a priority. Africa, for its part, is urged to speed up its progress towards democracy and to fight corruption. Tony Blair hopes to rally the rich countries to these proposals at the G8 Summit next July (Gleneagles, Scotland), and will defend his plan during the British Presidency of the Council do the EU in the second half of 2005.
In a press release, José Manuel Barroso sees the report as “an important contribution to a key year for development” with the G8 which will make Africa a priority, the UN Summit to assess progress towards the millennium development objectives (in New York in September- and the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Hong Kong in December, as part of the Doha Development Round.
President Barroso pointed out that Africa is the priority for the British Presidency of the G8 and for the European Union. “I want to make Africa a key issue of this Commission. The European Commission and the Commission for Africa recognised that more must be done for and by Africa. The European Commission will make proposals in April to speed progress towards the achievement of the millennium development objectives”, he said.
The Commission for Africa, which was set up in February 2004 by initiative of Tony Blair, is made up of sixteen high-level personalities, including nine Africans. Its duties involve identifying concrete actions to help Africa to develop.