Bono: There is a lack of vision
2005-06-09 15:14
Brussells - Giving a helping hand to Africa may help revive public support for a strong European Union, U2 lead singer and anti-poverty campaigner Bono said on Thursday.
Bono, who met European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to press for more aid for Africa, said lack of popular support for a first-ever European Union (EU) constitution showed many in Europe "do not dream the European dream with us".
"There is a lack of vision. Solving problems in Africa can be a chance to create a new belief in Europe," Bono said.
The rock star said his meeting with Barroso was an encounter between "two bandleaders" faced with similar problems.
Urging more EU aid for Africa, Bono said the world could help solve Africa's problems. "People are dying for stupid reasons," he said.
Barroso, at a joint news briefing with Bono, recognised that Europe's political problems following recent Dutch and French rejection of the EU treaty were no reason to "neglect our work in other areas".
"We have to compare our problems to those of others. 25 000 people are dying each day of hunger and thirst in Africa. And there are enough resources to solve the problems. Our problems are nothing in comparison to that," the EU chief underlined.
"Europe must not forget Africa. And Europe is not forgetting Africa," Barroso said, adding the EU was the world's biggest aid donor.
EU development ministers agreed to a Commission proposal last month to increase EU aid spending by at least €20bn per year by 2010.
EU leaders meeting in Brussels next week must put their full political weight behind the new targets, Barroso insisted.
Such a move would send a "European message of leadership and ambition" to a meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Scotland in early July, the Commission chief said.
- SAPA