[1] In 2005, the EU and its Member States agreed to achieve a collective level of ODA of 0.7% of GNI by 2015 and an interim target of 0.56% by 2010, with differentiated intermediate targets for those EU Member States which had recently joined the Union.
On 23 May 2011, EU ministers responsible for development co-operation gathered to take stock of progress made and concluded that additional efforts would be needed to close an estimated gap of €50 billion to reach the collective EU target of 0.7% by 2015.
For the Development Cooperation Instrument, the proposed amount for the period 2014–2020 is €23,294.7 million.
seven Member States (Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) argued during 26 March General Affairs Council meeting that the European Commission's proposed overall amount for the Budget of the European Union should be reduced by €100 billion, or in the case of Sweden, by more than €100 billion.
How this will influence the overall amount allocated for EU's development co-operation remains to be seen.