Barroso, Bono Press Conference on EU Development Aid and Africa
Summary: June 9, 2005: José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Press conference with Bono on EU Development and Africa (Brussels)
EU Development and Africa
Thank you for coming, and especially thank you to Bono. I know you will want to hear from him. I will spare you a long lecture on the EU's comitology procedure. Instead I want explain why I, President of the European Commission, in a week when the EU focus is on its budget and its Constitution, want to talk to you about Africa.
Why Africa? The situation in Africa puts European internal difficulties into perspective.
Let me give you a few facts. First, hunger. 25,000 people die of hunger in the world every day. There are 198 million people suffering from hunger in sub-Saharan Africa; more than the population of Germany, France and the United Kingdom combined.
Second AIDS. In sub Saharan Africa, 30 million people are living with AIDS; that amounts to the population of about 10 EU member states. 2.5 million of those living with AIDS are under the age of 15. 25 million have died already. 11 million children are orphans because of AIDS. Nurses and teachers are dying from AIDS faster than they can be trained. In Malawi, 90% of the doctors' posts and 60% of the nurses posts are unfilled because of AIDS.
So Europe must not forget Africa. And Europe is not forgetting Africa. We are the biggest aid donor in the world, contributing 55% of the aid. We are the world's biggest provider of trade related aid, worth around €750 million per year. We are giving trade and quota free access to our markets for all products from the Least Developed Countries, apart from arms.
But Europe can and must do more, urgently. That is why the European Commission has proposed to raise European aid spending by at least €20 billion per year by 2010, to improve policy and donor coordination and to focus especially on Africa.
I welcome the endorsement of these proposals by development Ministers. What we need now is for I ask EU leaders at next week's summit to put their full political weight behind the new targets. I call on them to agree to get Europe on the path to doubling aid in the next ten years. That is a European message of leadership and ambition which I can take to the G8 meeting in Gleneagles in July.
I believe this is a cause which can appeal to all Europeans, whatever their views on the Constitution or the EU budget.
That is the kind of Europe which I, as the President of the Commission, want. An open Europe. A generous Europe, which spreads its drive and determination for change beyond its borders.
I have made Africa a flagship issue for this Commission.
And clear my message today is that - despite Europe's own heavy and complex agenda - I am determined that Africa will not fall back in the political landscape.
We have the resources. We have the strength of popular feeling. And in 2005 we have a chain of events that have give political leaders a window of opportunity to achieve an historic deal for Africa's development. What we need now is political will and leadership to turn this into action.
Bono, when I spoke about this recently I borrowed a title of one of your songs. "Sometimes you can't make it on your own". You are right. I hope that we can prove that this year together, we can make a real difference.
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