MEP’s voice to the UN MDG summit in New York

Member of European Parliament (MEP), Gay Mitchell of the Group of the European People's Party is heading the European Parliament’s delegation to the UN MDG summit in New York, a summit that according to him is “undoubtedly our last chance, in the developed world, to refocus our efforts and to show that we are genuinely committed to achieving what we promised to our partners in the south at the turn of the century”. Gay Mitchell discusses the difficulties countries face in achieving the MDGs. The MEP sheds light on MDG targets in health and education sectors that sub-Saharan African countries struggle to achieve.

For the development cooperation instrument (DCI), the European Parliament insisted that 20 per cent of development spending be focused on basic health andbasic education. This target has not been set in the European Development Fund which covers the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries.

Mr. Gay Mitchell makes explicit reference to the need to extend the target of 20 per cent of development spending focused on basic health and basic education to the whole of the developing world and to Africa in particular. The MEP will press this crucial aspect during the UN summit.

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