Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-16-Speech-3-239"
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"en.20000216.13.3-239"2
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"Mr President, what I want to do in this debate is condemn the fate reserved for the poor countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. People have the gall to say they benefit from the Lomé Convention, but even looking at trading relations alone, the Lomé Convention has done nothing to protect those countries; their already feeble share in trade with Europe has been halved. That reflects the growth of inequality between EU and ACP countries. The Lomé Convention essentially benefits a few large industrial or financial conglomerates, which continue to pillage those countries and perpetuate their economic dependence, notably on the former colonial powers.
When it comes to so-called development aid, given that underdevelopment in the majority of these countries is getting worse rather than better, development is clearly not what the aid is for, even when it is not just a disguised export subsidy for European manufacturers. The aid is primarily a windfall for incumbent regimes, and the poor majority does not benefit at all.
Even if it were properly redirected this aid would not be enough to finance the most basic infrastructure for health care, education or drinking water supply. For some years now the great powers have been reducing the amount of this already derisory aid, and it is the height of cynicism when this is done on the pretext of human rights violations or corruption. After all, who protects these deeply corrupt regimes, if not the governments of the rich countries? They turn a blind eye to the masters of corruption, the big groups controlling oil, water supply, or public works. They could clamp down on them since their head offices are here in Europe.
The debate about either extending the Lomé Convention with its quotas and protectionism, or, instead, gradually winding down the special relationship between the European Union and the ACP countries in the name of free trade, is a warped debate between two ways of perpetuating the pillage and impoverishment of those countries. I protest against an ignoble and inhuman organisation which literally condemns hundreds of millions of human beings to a wretched death to enrich a minority. A mere fraction of the fantastic wealth accumulated by the big groups could lift these poor countries out of extreme poverty, but, until we have the courage to take on those big capitalist groups, we are just covering up the real problems."@en1
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