Date of release : 24-05-2005

Policy area : General Affairs and External Relations

Event : General Affairs and External Relations Council

At the end of the General Affairs and External Relations Council meeting of 24 May on development cooperation issues, Jean-Louis Schiltz, Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, announced the new threshold for official development assistance for 2010-2015:

"The Member States have come to an agreement on the new threshold for official development assistance for 2010-2015. Towards the end of last year, the European Union announced its intention of playing a major role in the Millennium Summit at the United Nations in New York in September 2005.

The agreement we have come to today is an important step to achieving this aim. It demonstrates that Europe is not only making promises, but also that it meets its promises. Working on the foundations of the commitments made in Monterrey and Barcelona, we are on the right path to attaining the collective commitment of 0.39% of GDP this year.

We have agreed on a new collective commitment for a GDP threshold of 0.56% by 2010, which translates as twenty billion euros of official development assistance per year as of 2010. I believe that to be an essential breakthrough – an extremely important step forward for international solidarity. Today, we have shown that international solidarity is far from being an empty phrase.

The Council meeting of November 2004 recognised that we had to take into account the specific economic situations of the new Member States. We carried on with this idea for the constituent parts of the collective undertaking of 0.56% of official development assistance by 2010, in that the 15 Member States (as they were) are each making an individual commitment to reach a threshold pf 0.51% of GDP by 2010 and a threshold of 0.7% of GDP by 2015. This also represents a major step forward, as this is the first time we have set a fixed date for this 0.7% of GDP for many years.

As for the new Member States, and taking into account their own economic situation, they will make every effort to attain 0.17% of GDP by 2010 and 0.33% of GDP by 2015. These are the parts making up the agreement which enabled us to arrive at a European Union collective commitment of 0.56% of GDP for official development assistance by 2010.

The Presidency extends its congratulations for reaching this agreement, which constitutes the most significant step forward made in terms of development since the definition of the Millennium Goals".