EU

International aid agency Oxfam welcomes the European Commission’s new aid package of 24 million euros for Niger and other countries in the Sahel region of West Africa, which was announced today in Brussels.

A group of powerful women from the front-line in the fight against poverty have appealed to European leaders to ensure health and education for all people by rescuing the Millennium Development Goals.

Two years ago, rich nations promised to deliver a legally binding climate deal in Copenhagen. Now rich countries have admitted to back peddling in order to accommodate the US.

The European Union’s suggestion today of global public financing worth €22-€50 billion per year for developing countries to tackle climate change falls short of what is needed.

As the second to last negotiations before Copenhagen draw to a close in Bangkok, three big sticking points remain. These issues show a lack of willingness of the EU and other industrialised countries to find common ground with developing countries.

The world, and most of all, its poor people, desperately needs a fair and safe climate deal to be agreed at the UN talks in Copenhagen in December.

As the US and China intensify discussions on climate change, Oxfam International urges EU countries to put aside national interests and step up their leadership role.

As poor countries face the full impact of the economic crisis, European governments are falling short by nearly €40bn (USD$55m) on their aid promises and will not meet their 2010 aid target until 2012, a new report from CONCORD reveals.

Europe is putting a global climate deal at risk and threatening the lives of millions of the world’s poorest, said development agency Oxfam International, as Environment Ministers met today to hammer out Europe’s position for a post-2012 global deal.