In September 2000 world leaders from 189 nations agreed and signed the UN Millennium Declaration, binding them to a global project to decisively reduce extreme poverty in all its key dimensions. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that derive from this Declaration provide an agenda for global action. This agenda and the outcomes of the World
Social Summit, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Doha Development Agenda and the Monterrey Consensus are mutually supportive processes and essential
building blocks of a worldwide partnership for sustainable development.
Over the last four decades EC development assistance has evolved from a fragmented focus
on countries with which EU Member States had strong colonial or other traditional links, to a
set of regional co-operation and partnership frameworks providing almost global coverage.
During the 1990’s the policies and practices of EC development cooperation gradually
integrated into a new global development framework aimed at poverty eradication, promotion
of gender equality, access to primary education, improving health and provision of other basic
services, as well as sustainable development, and the establishment of global partnerships.
The EU has been a major force in this process, and has expressed on numerous occasions its
full commitment to ensuring a successful conclusion. In the Council conclusions of 26 April
2004, the General Affairs Council once again confirmed that ‘achieving the Millennium
Development Goals is a key objective for the European Union’.
(Source: European Commission Report on Millennium Development Goals 2000-2004, November 2004)
