European Commission passes buck on how to fund sustainable development goals

Today the European Commission published a new Communication for a Global Partnership for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development after 2015. 

The proposal sets out the Commission’s stance towards the third international Financing for Development (FfD) conference in Addis Ababa in July, where world leaders will decide how to finance the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals will replace the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were designed to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. 

In response to today’s announcement, Hilary Jeune, Oxfam’s EU policy advisor, said: 

“It’s unacceptable that the European Commission passes the buck on how to fund the new sustainable development goals, when Europe as a whole is not even reaching their current commitment to provide 0.7% of national income to help combat global poverty. It’s a ‘do as we say, not as we do’ approach.”  

“Europe should move first and refrain from making its aid commitments conditional upon middle income countries joining the club. Otherwise the Commission is simply playing negotiating tactics with peoples’ lives.”  

“Every year, aid helps more than 220 million poor people in fragile and developing countries access basic services like health and education. Without this, schools and medical facilities in poor countries could simply vanish. Climate change alone will cause the financial needs of developing countries to spiral out of control.”  
 
“The private sector has the potential to drive growth that could help to pull people out of poverty, but the European Commission is only seeing the positives. The EU needs to define clear guidelines that would ensure companies will genuinely place fighting poverty above making profits, and do not harm the local communities they are supposed to help.”

“We welcome the Commission’s steer to take action on tax in order to mobilize public money to fight against poverty. But it’s disappointing that they don’t put any new initiative on the table, knowing that corporate tax dodging costs developing countries $100 billion every year. Europe should support the setup of a global inter-governmental body to promote fairer tax rules, with all countries seated at the table.” 

“The global tax system currently favors paying taxes in the headquarters countries of multinationals, rather than in the countries where raw materials are produced – further scamming the world’s poorest people. Ensuring fairer international corporate tax rules where all countries – and not just the richest ones – can have their say is an absolute necessity.”

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