Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-16-Speech-3-243"
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"en.20000216.13.3-243"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, firstly, I too would like to congratulate Mr Corrie on the quality of his report, which appropriately reflects the tenor of the debates in the Joint Assembly he so effectively co-chaired.
The eradication of poverty was central to our work and many speakers highlighted the need to preserve an essential tool for achieving that ambitious aim, to whit, preferential agreements between the European Union and the ACP countries within the framework of the Lomé Conventions. The challenge was immense. Globalisation, free trade, and the hegemony of the WTO with its internationalist philosophy, were imperilling the very essence of the North-South dialogue. So we can only applaud the conclusion of a new partnership agreement for development, and personally I am convinced that the work of the last Joint Assembly did have a decisive influence on breaking the deadlock in the negotiations, as did the new climate created by the events at Seattle.
However, while I welcome the renewal of the agreements, what I find most interesting is the new wind blowing through our relationships and finding expression in the balanced nature of the negotiations now drawing to a close. The European Union seems to me to have finally emerged from the old paternalist, or frankly neo-colonialist, logic where those giving aid are all too eager to start giving lessons, following a formula our friend Michel Rocard is so keen on. The Union has finally accepted the idea that dialogue cannot be genuine or effective unless it is the expression of a contract which respects the dignity of the partners.
By refusing to allow the idea of good governance to become a tool, in the hands of technocrats, for imposing new sets of conditions, the European Union is demonstrating wisdom and modesty. We have spent two centuries laying the foundations of a democracy whose fragility is constantly brought home to us by events. What right have we to try to impose our model on people whose history, values and identity are sometimes so profoundly different from our own?
Personally, I prefer the willingness that is clearly flagged up in these agreements to extend the partnership to new agents – local authorities, non-governmental organisations – which seems to me to represent the only possible way the people of these countries can progressively achieve ownership cooperation. In short, this is the only way they can emerge from humiliating and childlike dependence on aid and take responsibility for themselves, the proof of success."@en1
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