Brussels 03/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of the Confédération Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité (CIDSE) and its member organisations Broederlijk Delen (a Belgian NGO providing local aid in Africa and Asia) and Entraide et Fraternité (a Belgian catholic NGO for cooperation and development), a delegation of church representatives from developing countries has pressed the EU further to commit itself to the fight against poverty, particularly in view of July's G8 Summit in Scotland.
On 30 May, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras Cardinal Oscar Andrès Rodriguez Maradia and Archbishop of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia Berhaneyesus Souraphiel met in Brussels with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and asked him to do everything in his power to ensure the EU pursued the Millenium Development Goal (MDG) of eradicating poverty by 2015. Mr Barroso said that “poverty should be eradicated as slavery was” and confirmed the EU's intention to increase public development aid to reach 0.7% of community GDP in 2015 (EUROPE 8953). However, as CIDSE Secretary General Christiane Overkamp pointed out, “even though it is positive that Mr Barroso is continuing the EU's commitment to reach the target of 0.7%”, it was also necessary that “from their very next meeting, EU finance ministers present concrete plans and a timetable to make these promises a reality”.