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The European Commission recommits to the MDGs

The European Commission has recently adopted a twelve point EU Action Plan in support of the MDGs. The Action Plan was adopted in light of the upcoming UN Review Summit in September where progress towards the MDGs will be assessed. It urges Member States to establish verifiable annual action plans for reaching their agreed aid levels.

Stop AIDS Alliance welcomes this approach given that last year EU’s average aid levels decreased to 0.4% of EU GNI, meaning the EU is still far from meeting its intermediate collective target of 0.56% of GNI by the end of 2010. Attention is also paid to increasing aid effectiveness through better coordination of EU aid at the country level, which according to estimates, could save around 3-6 billion Euros per year. Priority will be given to the MDGs most off track which should mean renewed attention for the three health MDGs 4, 5 and 6 as they are the furthest of being achieved. With regard to MDG 6, the overall number of HIV infections may have decreased but the total number of people living with HIV continues to grow, partly due to increased survival because of expanded coverage of antiretroviral treatment. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst affected, with 33.4 million people living with HIV.

The EU is a major contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and supports many HIV projects around the world.  This means that the re-commitment by the European Commission to reaching the MDGs is very important. This commitment should now be translated into strong political Conclusions during the Foreign Affairs Council in June with detailed actions that could get MDG 4, 5 and 6 back on track.