Keep your promises to the poor!
Maxine K. signed
just now
Adam B. signed
just now
The power of your name:
Make the EU keep its promises to the poor!
2000: The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were defined. This initiative is the greatest initiative on fighting poverty worldwide. The aim is to reach the goals before 2015, so the initiative is also referred to as the 2015-goals.
2005: The biggest aid donor of the world, the EU, promised to help the MDGs by increasing the development aid of the EU member states. 2010-target: 0,51 pct. of the GNI for the richest 15 member states and 0,17 pct. of the GNI for the poorer 12 member states. 2015-target: 0,7 pct. for EU-15 and 0,33 pct. for EU-12.
2010: Only 10 member states seem to meet the partial economical goal for 2010. We still have five years left to meet the 2015-goals, but the member states lack seriously behind and don’t show much political will to keep their promises.
Keep your promises to the poor! is the first citizen initiative under the Lisbon Treaty. The aim is to collect 1 mill. signatures from people all over the EU. The signatures will put pressure on the politicians of the EU and force them to step up and keep their promises to the poor.
The initiative is launched by Concord Danmark (the Danish platform of CONCORD) in cooperation with the international aid watchdog AidWatch. Every year AidWatch publishes a report that shows how much the EU member states are paying in development aid.
The 10th of June the newest report from AidWatch was launched. It is based on figures from 2009 and shows that only 10 member states seem to meet the promise for 2010. That is four more than last year but still 17 too few.
The AidWatch-report stresses that this slight improvement is a product of the financial crisis: The GNI has contracted in the various countries and that is why it is easier to meet the partial goal for 2010 compared to the figures from last year’s report. The report concludes that even though improvements have been made official estimates for 2010 expect that the EU in total will reach 0,46 pct. of the GNI which is far from the collective target on 0,56 pct.
The final goal for 2015 is thus in serious danger. Only four countries (Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) are paying what they have promised to. These countries were also paying at least 0,7 pct. last year, so there is no improvement in this matter. Quite the contrary the Danish government will actually be cutting down aid with 3 mil. Euros (2,3 bn. Dk.kr.) from 2010-2013.
Many of the EU member states are huge economies - France and Germany for instance - and it is very criticizable that they don't keep their promises. It is a small amount for them, but of great importance for the poor people of the world. When great economies don't pay what they have promised to it has serious consequences for the total amount which should be 14,8 billion Euros higher in 2010 alone.
The newest report from AidWatch thus gives no reason to celebrate. 17 more countries need to step up so all countries meet the partial goal for 2010. And as for the final goal in 2015 not less than 23 member states seriously need to step up and keep their promises so the greatest initiative on fighting poverty becomes a reality.
There are no excuses. We have a responsibilty. We can make a change. Keep your promises to the poor!
Link to the newest AidWatch-report:
Share on Facebook
Comment
See More 0