Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 June 2004
47 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will report on the steps the Government took during the period of the Irish Presidency of the European Union in relation to the EU’s role in achieving the UN millennium development goals on the halving of global poverty by 2015. [18864/04]
View answerI refer the Deputy to my reply to Questions References Nos. 14611/04 and 14608/04 of 19 May last on this same issue. From the outset of the EU Presidency, Ireland has promoted strong leadership by the EU on the millennium development goals, MDGs. In January 2004, we used the occasion of the annual orientation debate on the effectiveness of the EU's external actions at the General Affairs and External Relations Council. GAERC, to highlight the central importance of the MDGs to the EU's foreign and development policies. The GAERC adopted conclusions which state that achieving the MDGs is a key objective for the European Union and the wider international community and that the commitments made by EU member states at the 2002 Monterrey conference on financing for development reflect the Union's leadership role in international efforts to achieve the MDGs.
UN member states have agreed to convene a major event — possibly a summit at Head of State or Government level — in New York in September 2005 to review progress towards achieving the MDGs in the period 2000 to 2005. As most of the MDGs have set 2015 as the target date for their achievement, the 2005 review meeting in New York will be the first major milestone on the road to 2015. Ireland believes that the EU should contribute to this UN stocktaking exercise through a co-ordinated EU report. At the GAERC on 27 April, on the basis of a Presidency initiative, Ministers mandated the Commission to co-ordinate an EU input to the September 2005 UN stocktaking. The Council conclusions provide that each member state must submit a national MDG report to the Commission on the basis of an agreed reporting format. The Commission will then synthesise these national reports into a joint EU report which, after discussion and approval by Ministers, will be submitted to the UN next year. The Council conclusions make clear that the national MDG reports must pay particular attention to MDG 8 — global partnership for development — which embraces such issues as levels of official development assistance, debt and trade. This particular goal is most relevant to donors and needs to be examined in detail in the national MDG reports.
On 1 June last, I hosted an informal meeting of EU development Ministers where we reviewed the effectiveness of EU development policy with a particular emphasis on strengthening its contribution to the achievement of the MDGs and meeting the Monterrey commitments. The European Council on 17 and 18 June concluded that the EU must continue to strengthen its leadership role in the fight against global poverty and expressed concern at the faltering progress towards the achievement of the MDGs, especially in Africa. The EU leaders also reiterated that the Union will intensify its efforts to fulfil the commitments undertaken in Monterrey regarding funding for development and will strongly support UN attempts to accelerate progress towards the achievement of the MDGs. In addition to these actions at the European Council and the GAERC, the Presidency has used every possible opportunity to highlight the importance of the MDGs and to promote the EU's view that development policies and programmes need to be aligned with the objectives of the goals. In his address on behalf of the EU to the spring meeting of the UN's Economic and Social Council with the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organisation, the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, called for greater policy coherence at national and international levels and for UN members to meet the commitments made at the international conference on financing for development in March 2002.
I am satisfied that during our Presidency we have helped place the MDGs at the centre of the EU's development and foreign policies. We have also taken initiatives that will ensure the EU continues to focus its attention on the MDGs and will play a leading role in the UN's review of progress towards the MDGs in September 2005.
