Bono Statement on Meeting with President Sarkozy of France

01.08.08

 

President Sarkozy of France and Bono met this evening at the Elysee Palace. The meeting was requested by Bono and his Africa advocacy group, DATA.

 

Following the meeting, Bono said:

"We had a feisty factual meeting about effective aid, French aid and the risks to EU credibility of broken promises to the world's poor. The President knows the details and moves fast.

 

Within the meeting the President not only promised to restore 20 million Euros cut from the Global Fund to fight AIDS TB and malaria, he also said he would send through a plan to restore promised French aid trajectories in the next few weeks.

 

The President admitted it would be very very hard, but France would keep her word."

 

France’s aid commitment:

• France shares the EU’s commitment to increase development assistance to 0.7% of GNI by 2015.
• France has separately committed to reaching that target earlier, by 2012.
• In 2006, France spent 0.31% of GNI on overseas development assistance.
• According to a parliamentary report of 11 October, it is estimated that ODA (overseas development assistance) would be 0.35% of GNI in 2007 and would remain at 0.35% in 2008.

 

About DATA:
DATA was co-founded by Bono and others in 2002 to raise awareness and promote action to fight poverty and AIDS in Africa.

 

In English, DATA stands for Debt AIDS Trade Africa. More information about the organisation can be found on our website www.data.org