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Ambitions to increase the financing of the EU’s external assistance have to correspond to budgetary capacities of the member states, Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Evaldas Ignatavičius said during the Development Ministers’ Meeting at the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council on 14 June in Luxembourg.

The Ministers discussed ways to strengthen the EU's assistance to developing countries, so that the countries would be able to achieve the millennium development goals by 2015.

Vice-Minister E.Ignatavičius suggested improving the quality of the EU's assistance. Moreover, according to the Lithuanian official, the recipient countries should make their own effort and should take responsibility for the implementation of millennium development goals. In this respect, the Foreign Affairs Council adopted important conclusions on the EU’s cooperation with developing countries in promoting good governance of taxes. The conclusions also suggest ways for the EU to help developing countries mobilize internal resources for development and poverty reduction.

Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs drew the attention of Development Ministers to the possible option that not only Africa, but also countries in other regions might fail to achieve millennium development goals by 2015. Therefore, Lithuania supports the European Commission’s proposal to increase the financing of assistance to Afghanistan, but also calls on the donors of this country to share the work and ensure a balanced allocation of resources to all regions of Afghanistan.

The Development Ministers’ meeting is dedicated to the preparation for the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) scheduled on 20-22 September in New York. The UNGA will assess the progress made in the implementation of millennium development goals.

In 2000, 192 UN member states and 23 international organizations agreed to achieve eight international development goals by 2015. Millennium development goals target to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, to ensure that all children complete a full course of primary schooling, to promote gender equality, to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability and to to rally a global community to ensure further development of humankind.

Vice-Minister E.Ignatavičius also stressed that in implementing millennium development goals the role of women was special. Lithuania supports the EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development for the 2010-15 period.

Lithuania supports the suggestions to systematically integrate the issues of gender equality into the agendas of political dialogue and the dialogue on development policy, because it is a frequent case to encounter a negative or indifferent attitude towards this subject in the recipient countries. Lithuania dedicates a lot of attention to the promotion of gender equality through development cooperation and aims to improve the situation of women in developing countries. Lithuania’s Presidency of the Community of Democracies also solves these issues.