EU offers $1.3bn to reduce poverty
United Nations, Sept. 21: European leaders have offered one billion euros ($1.3 billion) at the Millennium Development Goals summit here, amid mounting calls for money to pay for the battle to cut extreme poverty.
The sum was offered by the EU commission president, Mr Jose Manuel Barroso, at the end of the first day of a summit on the goals, knocked off track by the financial crisis.
The French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Spainish Premier, Mr Jose Luis Zapatero, earlier stepped up a push for a new global financial tax, raising pressure on the world's wealthy countries at the three-day summit to contribute more in the drive to eradicate poverty and improve child and maternal health. African nations in particular are calling for more action.
The UN Secretary- General, Mr Ban Ki-moon said the struggling effort to reach eight key development goals by 2015 could still be met if world leaders provide the necessary money and political will.
The aims include reducing the number of people living on less than $1 a day — put at 1 billion — cutting by two-thirds the number of children who die before the age of five, seeking fairer trade, and spreading the Internet to the world’s poor.
However, most experts are saying that none of the goals will be reached by the target date.
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