The European year for Development draws to a close - Main contents

An unprecedented year for international development

The European year for Development is just about to come to a close.

When 2015 was designated as the European Year for Development, we already knew that it was going to be a crucial year for international cooperation and development, as indeed it has certainly proved to be. During the UN Summit in September, the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development was adopted, which will set the course for international cooperation and development up to 2030. Together with the other two key events in development this year - the Financing for Development Summit in July in Addis Ababa, and the recent Climate Change COP in Paris 2015 was a landmark year for development, and one in which I'm proud to say the EU has played a crucial role.

However, development has now taken on even more significance than we would have imagined. The refugee crisis, with its images of people putting their lives at risk to cross the Mediterranean, has awakened our minds and hearts and reminded us that there are still so many challenges to deal with, right at our borders. In November, thanks to an unprecedented effort to combine political will and various financial instruments, the European Commission created a 1.8 billion euro Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa. All of this has given the European Year even more significance. There has never been a more important time to show EU citizens what is being achieved by EU aid with their support. The Year's motto - our world, our dignity, our future - has been a constant reminder that development cooperation is also about how we, as Europeans, respond to others.

We have said throughout 2015 that the European Year for Development has been a year about people. For me, one of the most striking and successful aspects of the year has been the way that it has enabled the everyday stories of development to be told. These are the stories missed by the headlines - providing access to safe water in Uganda; enabling a coffee cooperative to run its business in Malawi; protecting forests in Vietnam… and many more. The year has allowed us - with the help of the staff working in our EU delegations across the world - to hear the voices of the people whose lives have changed as a result of our support and to see and hear about the tremendous work that the European Union is doing with our development partners.

After so many months and years of careful preparation, intensive and hard work by everyone involved, I hope that today, thanks to the European Year for Development, many more people know why it is important to help those in the poorest and most vulnerable countries in the world, and most of all, are engaged and keen to be part of that effort themselves.

I would like to thank all of those who have shown their support to the European Year and helped to make it a success. The Joint Declaration signed by the European Parliament, Council and Commission on the legacy of the European Year for Development, underlined our commitment to continue to inform and engage EU citizens in meeting the sustainable development challenges of the next 15 years. I hope that all of you will continue to follow our work in 2016 and beyond and that those partnerships put in place this year continue to thrive long after the end of the European Year.