Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-11-Speech-2-151"
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"en.20000411.6.2-151"2
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"Mr President, the EU/Africa summit was reported in the press under the headline: Kiss and make up! Unfortunately a unique opportunity to reconcile different ways of looking at current problems and find a solution was wasted. First, it is astonishing and highly unsatisfactory that the European Parliament was not included in this allegedly forward-looking conference. The members of the European Council appear to have overlooked the fact here that the people of Europe are represented first and foremost by this Parliament. Obviously no one was particularly interested in apprising the African states of this fact.
So it was certainly not a mobilisation summit, as the press described it. As far as the content was concerned, it is perfectly understandable that the developing countries are interested in seeing their debt burden wiped out, but there can be no question of complete remission with no conditions attached. We found out at the last meeting of our ACP/EU assembly in Abuja that in Nigeria, for example, which has restored democracy, one of the last dictators diverted several billion euros to private accounts. One can only emphatically advise the developing countries to prosecute these offences, which are also punishable in Africa, and confiscate the money.
Then some, and it is a great deal, of the money would again be available to repay debts. We would be able to recognise the good intentions of the developing countries and could then negotiate writing off and ignoring the rest of their debts. In my view, this is all part and parcel of the good governance to which the countries of Africa have committed themselves if they are to receive more development aid.
On the other hand, I totally fail to understand why the German chancellor, for example, is treading a path which goes in the opposite direction of the other EU countries, by saying that the poorest of the poor countries should have all their debts written off first. This rather flashy and, in fact insubstantial gesture contradicts the resolutions of the G8 summit last year and is in keeping with his departure from the conference. It does not help matters if, instead of attending working meetings, one prefers to talk to Gadaffi for 10 minutes. What the topic of conversation was, one may only speculate.
The chancellor of the media, as he is called at home, made his entrance and what came out of the final declaration adopted hours later was obviously a matter of indifference to him. This is not the way, in my view, to formulate development policy nor is it the way to bring about the urgently needed reconciliation of national development policies. I think that we, the European Parliament, must continue to denounce these national solo efforts and increase the responsibility of Member States’ governments."@en1
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