06/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The 15 non-governmental organisations within the Action for Global Health (AFGH) initiative deplore the fact that European states have still not fulfilled their commitments in terms of development aid (0.7% of GNI) and funding (0.1% of GNI) for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on health. All countries are well below 0.1% of GNI as aid for health. Only four countries (Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Denmark) have paid official development aid of over 0.7% of their GNI. France and the United Kingdom have not reached the 0.5% mark, Germany is hardly above 0.3% and Italy is below 0.3%, to give just a few results. AFGH calls on the EU and member states to meet their financial commitments and to rapidly step up the share of aid allocated to health. This aid should above all aim to strengthen the health systems in developing countries. (oj)