Dear Colleagues,

I would like to start by saying thank you to France and Luxemburg for this initiative to call upon us, the ministers of education with the two aims to show solidarity and to show the importance of education in the efforts to support the affected countries.

Among the EU member states Sweden is one of the most badly struck with almost 800 people still missing. It is probably the most dramatic catastrophe in our modern history.

This situation has evoked a lot of sentiments and actions in my country to assist victims and affected regions. The whole society, government agencies, municipalities, organisations and individuals are working hard and purposefully to provide relief and comfort.

The voluntary contributions are on an all- record level of 87 million Euro. The Swedish government has made available an initial 55 million Euro to help the affected areas. In addition there are other projects starting in many fields.

Sweden has decided to support 20% of the costs for the UNESCO and the UN Secretariat for Disaster Reduction, in the construction of a system for warning against tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.

We have also decided to increase the means for a project called The Global School. The immediate purpose is to make the children understand what has happened.. We want to explain what they, in their everyday life, can do to help, and not only with money. The long-term purpose is to establish more and new school-to-school contacts.

As I said earlier, the immediate task is to take care of the survivors and see to the most urgent and basic needs. But our engagement will not end with this humanitarian phase of the crisis. Sweden is committed to remain involved also in the intermediate and the longer-term effort to reconstruct the affected countries, building on previous development assistance co-operation in the region. It is vital to plan ahead, to reconstruct and to restore the production potential of the affected areas to a path of sustainable development. It is important, as many countries already stressed.

Such long-term co-operation and assistance has to be based on the partner countries own priorities and commitment. This is crucial for the help to be effective and sustainable.

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The EU is the most important provider of development assistance in the world.

We are the superpower of development assistance.

This is not only an opportunity for us to show our citizens and the world that we are up to the task, it also means a responsibility for us to show leadership in the long-term efforts to rebuild the affected regions.

In this context it is also our responsibility, as Commissioner Figel pointed out, to facilitate their exports to us and abolish barriers that hinders their exports and their development.

Thank You!