Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-16-Speech-3-245"
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"en.20000216.13.3-245"2
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"Mr President, I should like to take this opportunity to thank the rapporteur for his excellent report and also to thank the Joint Assembly for its work in 1999. I am also delighted to be able to confirm that I shall be participating in the Joint Assembly’s next meeting, which takes place in March in Nigeria. The Commission is pleased to see the Joint Assembly playing a larger role, especially in connection with promoting a more extensive political dialogue with our partners in development. The Commission agrees with the rapporteur that combating poverty continues to be the central objective for development policy and will always play a key role. In order to be able to develop, the countries concerned must, however, become actively involved in the global economic system. With regard to trade with our partners in development, the Commission is quite prepared to guarantee that any new arrangement will take account of the ACP countries’ special economic and social limitations. Mrs Lucas mentioned that the Stabex and Sysmin system ought to be continued with. I do not agree. That system has proved itself to be inappropriate because it is, in actual fact, of use only to relatively few of the 71 countries concerned. It operates too slowly, and it therefore stands to reason that the developing countries should have said yes to the new system of the future, because this will operate more flexibly.
Regarding the future accession of countries such as East Timor to the Lomé Convention, I can only repeat what I recently said to the European Parliament’s Committee on Development and Cooperation, namely, that the door is open. It is the applicants themselves who are to decide whether they want to knock on the door. Once they have done so, we shall adopt a position on the matter. With regard to Cuba’s application for accession to the Lomé Convention, the Commission notes that, according to their recent declaration, the ACP States support Cuba’s application. The EU has always called for a constructive attitude to be adopted towards Cuba, as outlined in the EU’s common position, but it has to be recognised that the discussions will be complex. With regard to the Côte d’Ivoire, I can inform you that the whole of the EUR 28 million has been paid back in accordance with what was agreed following examination of the financial irregularities. With regard to financing the European Development Fund by an amount in excess of the budget, I can say that this is being considered. For its part, the Commission supports this, but we cannot at this point produce new reports on the whys and wherefores.
Concerning Article 366A, I can say that, during the negotiations for a new partnership agreement, a new procedure was established for dealing with instances where human rights and the principles of democracy and the rule of law are infringed. It is now the case, following adoption of the Amsterdam Treaty, that Parliament wishes, on the basis of Article 300, to be kept fully informed of all decisions, and the Commission will continue to take account of Parliament’s decisions on this subject. There are no plans to follow the procedure involving concurrent statements in Parliament in connection with such decisions. This would in fact demand a change to the recently adopted Amsterdam Treaty.
Finally, I would refer to the South Africa agreement, which the rapporteur also touched upon. In this regard, I am simply pleased – delighted, in fact – here this evening, as a conclusion to this debate, to be able, very appropriately, to inform you that South Africa’s President has today said yes to the solution which the EU’s Council of Foreign Ministers last Monday agreed unanimously to propose with regard to the outstanding problems regarding South Africa. So the “Grappa War” is over. Peace has broken out, and we can now look forward to cooperation with South Africa in accordance with the common dreams and values which ought to have underpinned the whole business from the start. I think this rather nicely puts the finishing touches to a debate which has, on the whole, been quite positive, and I would repeat my thanks to the rapporteur and to Parliament for the cooperation which has gone into our relations with the Third World on precisely the work in question."@en1
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