Press Release: Development aid and Millennium Development Goals: Commission calls Member States to get back on track for more and better aid

On 21 April 2010, the European Commission adopted an ambitious action plan for EU action to speed up progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In 2009, the EU aid level slightly decreased and amounted to €49bn. This corresponds to 0.42% of EU GNI, making the EU still far from meeting the intermediate collective target of 0.56% GNI by 2010, before reaching 0.7% EU GNI by 2015. The EU remains the most generous global donor, providing over half of global aid.

The Commission proposes to Member States a number of actions in support of MDGs. They aim at increasing the level of aid while making aid more efficient and focused on those countries and sectors most in need. To feed into the action plan, the Commission has also adopted a Communication on taxation and development which aims at increasing developing countries' domestic revenues through building stronger domestic fiscal systems and fighting tax evasion internationally. The action plan sets out a possible EU position ahead of the UN Summit on the MDGs in September 2010.

• Primary Source

Eropean Commission: Memo: MEMO/10/147:Getting the Millennium Development Goals back on track: a twelve points EU action plan http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/10/147&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commission: Memo: MEMO/10/146: Tax and development: promoting good governance in taxation as part of development cooperation http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/10/146&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commission: Memo: MEMO/10/145: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Frequently Asked Questions and examples of EU-funded projects http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/10/145&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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