The EU to analyse Haiti reconstruction plans and the UN Millennium Goals

European post-earthquake aid to Haiti, the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and transatlantic cooperation will be the focus of the EU Informal Meeting of Ministers for Development, to be held on 17 and 18 February in La Granja (Segovia).

Eight Ministers and fifteen Deputy Ministers or Secretaries of State of the EU Member States, together with the new Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, will take part in the meeting to be chaired by the Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Soraya Rodríguez.

The meeting agenda includes a discussion of the effectiveness criteria for aid and the international division of labour, as well as innovative mechanisms for financing development.

The Administrator for United States Agency for Development (USAID), Rajiv Shah, and the Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Development, Eva Joly, will be invited to the sessions in order to coordinate post-earthquake action in Haiti.

A few days after the devastating 12 January quake, the EU Ministers for Development met in an extraordinary Council meeting in Brussels to approve a Haiti aid package of over 420 million euros (229 million earmarked for immediate relief).

At the La Granja meeting, the top European officials for cooperation and development will analyse the EU's next initiatives for coordinating humanitarian aid for Haiti, as well as follow-up reconstruction plans.

No additional economic aid or written conclusions are expected to come out of the meeting, given that informal Council meetings such as the La Granja encounter are held to encourage a relaxed exchange of viewpoints among the EU Member States.

The purpose of the meeting is to establish foundations for the polices that will be approved in subsequent formal meetings, to be held in Brussels and Luxembourg.

Another of the meeting's objectives is preparation for the review of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) slated for next September in New York.

In 2000, the UN set the challenge of achieving a series of goals before 2015, including wiping out hunger and extreme poverty, advancing toward universal education and gender equality, and reducing infant mortality.