Speech at the Opening of the European Development Days

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be here with you today and to open the 2015 European Development Days together with you, Commission President Juncker, Prime Minister Straujuma, Prime Minister Bettel and Mrs. Gates.

This conference could not have been organized at a better time. 2015 is not only the European Year of Development. This year will be decisive for defining the goals of the post-2015 development agenda. And these European Development Days - together with you as participants and stakeholders - can help make 2015 the year where we successfully address the most pressing global challenges.

The fight against poverty and hunger surely continue to be at the very top of our agenda.

Today one billion people still live in extreme poverty. That is one billion people living on less than one dollar 25 a day, as Jean-Claude just mentioned.

But there is also good news, encouraging news.

In the past twenty years, we have accomplished astonishing things.

Let me give you three examples:

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  We increased the number of people who have access to clean drinking water by 2.3 billion.
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  Child mortality is down by almost 50 per cent. That is more than 7000 children per day who do not die, whose lives are saved thanks to malaria medication, HIV prevention among other factors.

And last but not least, we succeeded in more than halving the percentage of people living in extreme poverty in developing regions. Halving extreme poverty - that is an enormous success!

It was Bono who pointed out to me that if we continue with poverty eradication at this pace we will manage to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. A dream of humankind is within our reach: making extreme poverty history - if we, and I quote Bono "don't mess it up".

So what could go wrong?

For one, we could cut much needed development budgets. While the EU as the world's largest provider of development assistance has contributed significantly to the fight against poverty, I am worried that this year some of our member states have missed the target of contributing 0.7 per cent of their GDP to development assistance. And - this is no secret - the European Parliament and I personally, are still angry that during the last MFF negotiations international aid was cut in the EU budget. These budget cuts cost lives!

The European Parliament will keep on pushing the governments until they fulfil their commitment of the 0.7 per cent target - and again increase the development aid in the EU budget.

Secondly, we could lose the fight against climate change. This, of course would be a tragedy for all of humanity, but poor people and poor countries would be affected worst. It is they which are most vulnerable to the impact of climate change such as rising sea levels, extreme weather, decreasing yields and growing water scarcity. Therefore, it is imperative that at this year's Paris climate summit we bring about a universal and binding agreement in line with the 2 degree target.

I am proud that the EU is leading in the fight against climate change. We have committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 % by 2030. But our aim must be the world-wide promotion of low-carbon development models. The European Parliament therefore has called for an EU roadmap for scaling-up predictable, new and additional climate finance towards the Copenhagen climate summit commitment.

Thirdly, corruption continues to be a real obstacle in winning the fight against poverty. Because corruption hits poor people hardest. It means schools and hospitals do not get built because tax payer's money or development aid is stolen. It means services people depend on like the provision of drinking water, health care or sanitation is of low quality or completely lacking. It’s high time we recognize that the battles against poverty and corruption are inseparably linked.

Fair taxation is also key. The European Parliament strongly supports fair and efficient tax systems and international tax cooperation to allow countries to mobilise domestic resources. It is not acceptable that developing countries lose more money from illicit financial flows than what they receive in development aid!

My fourth point is one that is often overlooked in the fight against poverty: violence.

Today, more people are fleeing from violent conflicts than at any other time since World War Two. More than fifty million people are on the run due to hunger, human rights abuses, oppression, terrorism or war. When millions of people are forced to leave their homes, it profoundly undermines the development potential of their country. Their displacement also generates additional needs that have to be met by the international community and, especially, host countries, which are, for the most part, developing countries themselves. 86 % of all refugees are hosted by developing countries! Surely, this is a disproportionate duty!

And again it is the poor who suffer most from violence: violence keeps parents from fetching water and earning a livelihood and children from going to school - indeed one in two of the world's out-of school children live in regions affected by violence. And this further aggravates poverty. Estimates suggest that poverty could drop by 12 % if all children in low income countries could read. Education contributes to sustainable growth and more stable and accountable governments. Girl's education particularly yields some of the highest returns of all development investments.

By investing in education and putting an end to violence, we help people escape poverty. The extremism and violence of the so-called Islamic State or Boko Haram is shocking to all of us. Yet it cannot be stopped by military means only. We need to find political solutions for the areas concerned and restore the role of trustworthy governments.

I hope that in 2015 we will not lessen our ambitions, but step them up and make 2015 a key year in setting a new development agenda which will have at its heart the goal of eradicating extreme poverty within one generation.

Thank you for your attention.