UNITED NATIONS- The European Union has offered one billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) to reinforce efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at a UN summit.
The huge sum was offered by the EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso at the end of the first day of a summit on the goals, which have been knocked off track by the international financial crisis.
"Today, I come to you to confirm Europe's commitment to the challenge. I would like to announce that the EU is ready to offer one billion euros to make progress on those goals we are furthest from achieving," Barroso told the summit.
"We have to produce more effective results because time is running out," the head of the EU's administrative arm said of the 2015 deadline to meet the key development goals set at a summit one decade ago.
The EU said last week that up to one billion euros would be made available at the summit "for reaching the MDGs to most committed and most in need African, Caribbean and Pacific countries."
The money will come from the European Development Fund but has not yet been allocated to specific objectives, the commission said in a statement.
No other details on how the money will be spent were immediately available. It is, however, one of the biggest new sums announced at the MDG summit.
