Brussels, 17/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - Jean-Louis Schiltz, the Luxembourg minister for development cooperation and humanitarian action and president-in-office of the Council of the EU, pleaded on Tuesday for the Member States to increase the volume and efficiency of their public development aid if they want to make a contribution to meeting the millennium development objectives (MDO). Speaking to the chairs of the foreign affairs committees of the Parliaments of the EU, the candidate countries and the European Parliament, meeting in Abbaye Neumünster in Luxembourg, Mr Schiltz stressed that the EU Summit (in New York next September), to assess progress made on this should be used as impetus to step up efforts. Finding new sources of funding and increased efficiency do not, in his view, justify a wait-and-see policy. “If we do not devote more and better means we may not meet our objectives. The best way of achieving them is capacity building. We must improve capacity on the ground to ensure that our efforts are more effective”, he said. Convinced that the EU will not be able to take a strong position at the UN Summit if it fails to agree on an objective by 2009/2010, the President urged the Union to match the resources to the ambitions. “If we want to hit the MDOs, and more particularly if we want to solve Africa's problems, we must agree on quantitative commitments under the Luxembourg Presidency and thus before the Summit”. The objective for the new Member States, which have moved on quickly from the status of countries which receive aid to that of donor countries, must be realistic, said Mr Schiltz. “What matters in their case is to build up a head of steam by 2010. We must get the idea across that development cooperation is a priority. I am very optimistic about this”.