EU: Bono took to the corridors of Brussels yesterday to urge EU leaders to make good on a recent pledge to double aid to Africa and not succumb to damaging navel-gazing prompted by the recent constitutional crisis in the union.
Speaking afterwards, the U2 singer urged ministers: "Don't blow it, this kind of momentum doesn't come along every year."
He asked them to "put down . . . national flags, look up from the numbers and see the future".
Taking a sideswipe at the Republic by saying mockingly "Ireland's going through really hard times at the moment", he added it was a pity the State was "dragging its feet" on its aid. Ireland had a very strong link with Africa and should be taking the lead on the issue, said Bono.
His words came ahead of a decision by EU leaders next week on whether to agree to an intermediate target for development aid of 0.56 per cent of gross national income by 2010, allowing Europe to reach the UN's target of 0.7 per cent (or about €90 billion a year) by 2015.
Four member states - Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Luxembourg - have already met the 2015 target, a UN goal since 1970.
"People are dying for the most stupid reasons," Bono said. "These are avoidable catastrophes. It's not wide-eyed, misty-eyed Irish nonsense; these are achievable goals."
Standing alongside European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, the performer also offered his own reasons why the EU was going through its current crisis, provoked by the recent double rejection of the constitution.
Young people "feel that Europe doesn't have the kind of vision that they can relate to", he said. Africa would represent a chance for politicians and Europeans to "redescribe" themselves.
He joked that he was doing this because of his "megalomania", but added he was campaigning because he had a "sense of what's possible".
Even Mr Barroso, who has been subdued by the current political turmoil in Europe, was tempted to be lighthearted, confessing to using text from a song from the band's Zooropa album at the start of one his academic papers on the future of He also had to laugh aloud when, after a deliberate pause, Bono said it was "great" he had decided to take on the job as commission president.
But Mr Barroso had a serious plea to EU leaders not to forget the world's poor countries as they contemplate the bloc's future. "Yes, we have some problems in Europe [ but] those problems are nothing compared with those people who are dying every day," said Mr Barroso.
Approval by EU leaders would give the commission president a strong hand when he goes to the G8 summit of industrialised nations in July to present the bloc's views.
Britain, currently chairing the G8, has been trying to get other rich nations - particularly the US - to agree to its demand that poor countries' debt be cancelled and their aid doubled. G8 finance ministers will meet this weekend to try and hammer out an agreement head of July's meeting.