| Author (Person) | Carstens, Karen |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.9, No.33, 9.10.03, p2 |
| Publication Date | 09/10/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 09/10/2003 By Karen Carstens MEMBER states are under fire for blocking the spending of a €1 billion fund that could be used to bring fresh water and sanitation to millions of the world's poor. Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies has called on the Council of Ministers to stop refusing to release funds to meet the aims of the 'Water for Life' programme, announced atlast year's UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)in Johannesburg. The EU-led agreement reached at the summit aims to halve by 2015 the 1.1 billion people without access to safe drinking water and the 2.4 billion without adequate sanitation. More than two million people, mostly children, die annually from water-related diseases. Davies, a member of the European Parliament's delegation to the WSSD, said that although working groups have since been set up and initiatives developed on paper, not a single new project is actually underway. He said that if the ambitious targets are to be met, sanitation provision would have to be made for 250,000 people every day, or the population of London every month. "It's an immense task," Davies said. "Wells must be dug, pipes laid and septic tanks built in great numbers if the aims are to be realised. "Every week of delay makes the task more enormous and makes the grand gestures of EU governments a year ago look more shallow." The European Commission proposed last April that €1 billion from the European Development Fund (EDF) be allocated towards Water for Life initiatives and established a secretariat to this end. But foreign ministers have blocked the bid, arguing that they want more assurances that the money will be used effectively due to the EU's previous poor track record of delivering development projects. Commission officials, however, argue that reforms now under way will ensure that its performance in using the cash is as good as that of many member states. They also stress that ministers have put forward no alternative suggestions for meeting the Johannesburg commitments. EU governments do not have to provide the EDF resources until money is allocated towards specific projects. Several MEPs have accused governments of filibustering because finance ministers coping with budget deficits at home want to avoid spending the money. "It is a betrayal of pledges made by governments just a year ago to the poorest people on the planet," said Davies. "If EU member states genuinely want to meet the water and sanitation commitments, they should release the money while insisting that the Commission makes more reforms to improve its performance. What we are seeing instead is a flat refusal to authorize any action at all. Not only have ministers not allocated money for specific projects, they have not even taken the first step of setting up a secretariat to organize the task." Chris Davies MEP has called on the Council of the European Union to release funds to meet the aims of the United Nations' 'Water for Life' Programme. |
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| Subject Categories | Politics and International Relations |
