Brussels, 16/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European civil society component in the Global Call for Action against Poverty in Europe is calling on Heads of State of EU governments to do more for the poorest on the planet. Defenders of this cause say that a few hours away from the opening of the European Council, proposals by the EU to speed up the millennium objectives, provide a unique opportunity that should not be missed. The Commission is convinced of this and rallied to the cause on Thursday via a symbolic gesture celebrated by president Barroso, Development Commissioner Louis Michel and Belgian singer Axelle Red, whose commitment to African children is well known. Supporters of the NGO (The Global Call for Action against Poverty) and European citizens involved in the campaign met Barroso to call on the EU to mobilise public aid for development and to take immediate measures for cancelling the debt of the poorest countries as well as to guarantee that Europe's commitments to development are reflected in financial perspectives 2007-13. Kumi Naidoo, member of the global campaign said, “At this summit, European leaders have an opportunity to strike a chord with millions of citizens and confirm the commitments to increase aid. When a child dies of poverty-related causes every three seconds, we cannot afford to waste any more time”.
José Manuel Barroso announced that fines for infringing competition rules could
be directed to development aid
As a sign of the support for this campaign, the European Commission HQ in Brussels has for several days been flying a white band on the eighth floor with the slogan “Aid, trade and debt”. It is the first of a number of well known buildings across Europe to be “wrapped” with a white band in the coming months - the Coliseum in Italy, the Brandenburger Tor in Germany and, in France, the Trocadero's buildings. Barroso said, “I hope that here in Brussels tomorrow, European leaders will confirm at the highest political level their determination to put the Union on track to double aid for development. And to enable me to go to the G8 in Scotland with a clear and ambitious European message about action to tackle poverty, hunger and disease. ” He also stated to the press that they now needed concrete results He said that the EU should not abandon the world in which 25,000 people die from starvation every day or where 25 million Africans die of AIDS. This, he said, were the real problems of our time and Europe's youth were asking for them to show the way. Barroso thanked Axelle Red for her commitment, as he had done a few days earlier with the pop star Bono (EUROPE 8965). Referring the need to reflect on some innovative sources of funding development aid, Barroso said that a 1 euro aeroplane ticket tax was a “good idea” (the Commission debated this on Wednesday and will send a detailed technical analysis to the Ecofin Council in July, like the idea suggested by the Commission of to pay public development aid from fines on companies infringing competition rules (an idea that could be rapidly put into practice as it does not pose any problem from a budgetary point of view but still has to be studied from a legal point of view).
René Grotenhuis, Dutch spokesperson for the campaign underlined that the white band hoisted on the day of the European summit coincided with children's day in Africa and was both a good and bad sign. A good sign because it bore out the European Commission's support, “as we believe that Europe should do more. After all its commitments, it will be good for Europe to do what it has promised”. Axelle Red said that they now needed action. She stated that Europe had demonstrated that it was divided and citizens very distanced from the European project. She averred that EU Member States had the opportunity of getting closer to citizens and pointed out that “nine out of ten citizens find poverty unacceptable”. She concluded that in Africa a child dies every three seconds, “You're going to discuss the 2007-13 development budget. Let's not forget the development budget, it's our moral and ethical duty”. Louis Michel said that one of the most remarkable projections of European values was development policy. He said that that the EU had to put commitments made by development ministers into practice and pay EUR 20 bn a year up to 2010. He declared that this was in humanity and everybody's interest.