| The Foreign Ministry’s State Secretary for International Development Cooperation participated in the European NGO conference on heath protection organised by “Action for Global Health” in the European Parliament on March 2, 2010. Soraya Rodriguez, the Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation, and Peter Moors, the Belgian Director General for Development Cooperation representing the other partners of the Trio Presidency were also attending. The primary aim of the event was to call attention to the shortfall in attainment of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as regards healthcare as well as to frame possible contribution by the European Union under the current Spanish Presidency, together with the following Belgian and Hungarian Presidencies. This issue has particular resonance since on September 20-22, 2010 during the UN General Assembly session, a high-level conference will be held in New York devoted to midterm assessment on the Millennium Development Goals: heads of states and governments are to debate the necessary measures to bridge the gaps. At the Millennium Summit in 2000, the 189 Member States of the UN committed themselves to realising the so-called Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The aim of the eight goals is to alleviate serious poverty and hunger and to fight contagious diseases, as well as improving the developing world’s state of health. Analyses show, however, that despite determined political commitment, serious deficiencies have been experienced in achieving the goals, and this is especially true of healthcare. At the opening of the “Action for Global Health” conference, Eva Joly, the head of the European Parliament’s Committee on Development and Andris Piebalgs, the Commissioner for Development, emphasised the EU’s outstanding role, and confirmed its commitment to improve the global health situation. The contributors called attention to the fact that the under-attainment in respect of the MDG is attributed to insufficient financing, yet the problem is more multifaceted. The representatives of the EU Spain-Belgium-Hungary Trio Presidency agreed that allocating more funds was in itself not sufficient, and very important supplementary action would be to reduce fragmentation of support, to coordinate and unify the steps taken by the Member States of the European Union, as well as harmonising healthcare policies. As State Secretary Várkonyi emphasised, the EU is very experienced in creating and sustaining health systems, which can be successfully channelled into the developing world, too. Ms Rodriguez and Mr Moors also stressed that the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals is not just a responsibility of developed countries; the developing world must also undertake a serious role. The right to health, establishment of health services and equal, across-the-board access to them is primarily the task of developing countries’ own governments; donors however should do everything possible to help. The Spain-Belgium-Hungary Trio regards supporting the EU efforts in the interest of Millennium Development Goals as a priority and will do everything to secure the EU’s leading role in this area. (March 2, 2010) |