With a share of 60 per cent, the European Union - the Commission together with the member states - is the largest donor of official development assistance worldwide. The prime goals of EU development policy are poverty reduction, good governance and promoting human rights and democracy.

United against global poverty

To implement the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the EU pledged in 2005 to raise the average development assistance budgets of all member states to 0.56 per cent of gross national income (GNI) by 2010. Austria subscribes to the goals of European development policy and makes a substantial contribution to their implementation. Since EU accession in 1995, a large part of Austrian expenditure on multilateral development cooperation has been administered via the European Union.

European Consensus

In December 2005, the European Council approved a common development policy statement of the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission. The European Consensus on Development streamlines the development policy of the EU and its member states for maximum effectiveness and establishes common principles applying to the EU Commission and the members alike.