EU Commits Additional 1.7 Billion Euros to Universal Primary Education

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel announced today that the European Commission is committing 1.7 billion euros of new funding to education programs designed to help countries meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of primary education for all children by 2015. At a conference in Brussels bringing together governments from the developed and developing worlds, non-governmental organizations, international donors, and the private sector to review progress by developing countries, all participants agreed that urgent action is needed now—77 million school age children are out of school today, including 44 million girls. Despite strong progress, at least 75 countries, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, risk failing to reach the universal primary education MDG by 2015.

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