The most neglected Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) must be addressed as a priority and the current rate of progress in achieving them must be sped up, foreign affairs and development ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, reiterated, on 14 June. After an exchange of views designed to prepare for the United Nations review of MDGs in New York, from 20 to 22 September, the Council of Ministers adopted conclusions (also submitted to the 17 June Europan Council) setting out its position to get flagging progress back on track despite the pressures of the global financial and economic crisis.

The EU backs the MDGs, notably providing more than half of all development aid worldwide, and has been encouraging its member states, as well as partners abroad, to live up to their pledges despite economic difficulties. The main aims are to reduce poverty, promote health - especially among mothers and children - and provide access to education for all children. The goals, set in 2000, are due to be realised in 2015. However, progress to date is “patchy” by the EU’s own assessment. The EU has doubled its development assistance to promote MDGs since 2000, providing, in 2009, €49 billion. But state donors, within the EU and outside, have had difficulty finding the political backing for development funding when almost without exception national economies are plagued by financial crises.

The EU reports “strong and sustained progress” in reducing extreme poverty, universal primary education, gender equality in primary education and access to water, but notes that around 1.4 billion people still live in extreme poverty and one-sixth of the world’s population is undernourished. The Union recognises that there has been “almost no progress” in reducing deaths among children, pregnant women and mothers in the year after childbirth.