mr president the year two thousand and seven was unfortunately the second year in a row when contributions to official development assistance decreased in the developed world
i am therefore glad that the rapporteur has reiterated the need to urge the european union member states to uphold their commitments
i find that the member states ought to revise their current assistance to target countries as the two thousand and eight millennium development goals progress chart indicates that sub-saharan africa is the only region lagging seriously behind the progress expected
i would like to use this opportunity to encourage member states to increase their contribution to sub-saharan africa which is the least developed region in the world
also target countries are not always too receptive towards the conditional nature of eu assistance
we should continue with the efforts to involve those countries more intimately
the global economic crisis burdens us all yet we must not forget or ignore the fact that the least developed countries are also the most vulnerable now
furthermore with the stagnant situation in africa europe is more and more intimidated by flows of immigration that might become strenuous to the welfare state
it is much wiser to deal with the problems of the people of the developing countries before those problems spill over to concerns that we need to address here in europe
