Between 6 and 7 October 2010 Heads of State and Government from Europe, Africa and rest of the world; high-level representatives of governments, international organisations as well as development practitioners, NGOs, media and civil society will be in Brussels for the Fifth European Development Days. Registration will be opened until 15 November.

The European Development Days, organized by the European Commission in cooperation with the Belgian Presidency of the European Union, will take place a few days after the Africa-EU Summit in Tripoli, in parallel to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún. The European Development Days provide a timely and focused interface for stakeholders and governments to address global challenges in an open and often informal atmosphere.

Under the leadership of President José Manuel Barroso and Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs, the 2010 edition of European Development Days will feature 15 High Level Panels, two keynote speeches and 30 seminars on subjects as sensitive as the place of development in the institutional setup prescribed by the Lisbon Treaty, governance, reflection on the future of development cooperation, access to energy, the “Global Health Policy”, the management of natural resources, support to the private sector, the effectiveness of aid, human rights, etc.

In addition to the debates and workshops, the EDD will be accompanied by numerous side-events, and launch of Prizes and reports. A highlight among these will be the award ceremony of this year's Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize in the Town Hall of Brussels and the award ceremony of the winners of the Music Against Poverty contest. This year, the candidates selected in the “Young Reporters Against Poverty” contest will also be invited to the EDD and take part in one of its seminars.

The European Development Days

European Development Days were launched in 2006 as a vehicle for aid effectiveness and an opportunity to strengthen the European Consensus on development cooperation. The four previous editions have featured 31 Heads of State, 44 Heads of Government or ministers and 6 Nobel Prize winners. The last European Development Days edition in 2009 in Stockholm attracted a total of 6000 participants.

Registration for the European Development Days 2010 will be open until 15 November.