Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-04-11-Speech-2-155"
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for your speeches, which will encourage us to pursue this European Union policy on Africa. I would like to clarify a few points. Firstly, the question of linking parliamentary bodies, such as the ACP-EU Joint Assembly and the European Parliament. As you will be aware, this summit was negotiated with another party: it was not imposed on them, nor could it be. It was not a summit involving the European Union alone. We had a partner that had to be respected, because the consequence of not respecting our partner would have been to have had neither a dialogue nor a summit. Well, let it be said that there were even problems in including references to the ACP group in the final conclusions. Why was this the case? Firstly, because this was seen as the first major rapprochement between Africa and Europe and not all Africa’s countries are ACP countries. Secondly, the ACP group is not a purely African group. It also covers the Caribbean and Asia. Therefore, you will understand that incorporating the ACP group into the summit, particularly at Joint Assembly level, would not have been at all easy, especially as the ACP group was not involved at any other level.
Secondly, with regard to the European Parliament, we understand how necessary and important it is for the European Parliament to take part in these initiatives and that is why we, the Presidency, have been involved in extensive dialogue with the European Parliament through the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy and here today, in plenary sitting. My only regret is that attendance is low, but it is nevertheless of an extremely high calibre. We have held lengthy discussions on this summit and on the fact that its effectiveness rested on two pillars: one is the European Union, and the other is the OAU. And the OAU, for its part, does not have a parliament. There was therefore a problem in accommodating within one summit, which I repeat was a summit of equals, not a summit of parties of a different status, an institution which the other co-sponsoring organisation did not have. When we prepare the next summit, the 2003 summit, we will certainly look at ways of strengthening the European Parliament’s participation in a framework that must take account of the other party, given that the other party exists. And nobody can understand anything about relations with Africa unless they grasp the fundamental point that Africa is out there and has its own opinions and ideas on issues. Let us not try to insist that all our ideas should be automatically accepted and included in the negotiations just because they are ours.
Another important point is debt. I would not be as sceptical as some of you have been in your speeches and I even think that the reaction of the Africans at the summit and afterwards to the way in which the problem of debt was addressed showed a degree of confidence. We must not forget that there is a qualitative difference. I would remind you of the commitment given by Member States in relation to the world’s highly indebted poor countries to reduce and even cancel their debt, not forgetting the Union’s EUR 1 000 million contribution to this programme. I would also draw your attention to the fact that in 2000, the European Union will clearly commit itself to establishing, by 2005, a programme of access to its economy, free of customs duties, for products from less developed countries. This will make a major contribution to stimulating their economies in the context of uneven trade liberalisation. This is unprecedented and has never been done by any other group of countries. It is extremely innovative and is greatly welcomed by these countries. Confirmation of these principles at the summit was generally well received by the African countries. The summit is not an international financial organisation. The problem of reducing or cancelling debt could not be solved at the summit. The summit has helped to confirm values and commitment, and it was also extremely significant that many European Union countries took this opportunity to announce publicly that they were reducing or cancelling the debts of the poorest highly indebted countries. This had an important effect in terms of synergy and precedent.
The most important aspect of what took place was in fact consistently highlighted by the Africans: for the first time the European Union has agreed to address the issue of the indebtedness of African countries with the whole of the African continent through the follow-up mechanisms of a summit. The high-level bi-regional group was charged with preparing a report on African indebtedness which will then be discussed at ministerial level. This represents a complete U-turn in this area. It is the first time that the European Union has agreed to discuss the problem of their indebtedness with all the African countries, in an institutional framework outside the international financial organisations. The African countries considered this to be one of the most important milestones of this summit.
I should tell you that the aim of the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union was to do something for Africa, not just because we had done something for other continents or regions, such as Latin America and Asia, but also because other countries or groups of countries, such as the United States, Japan and even China had begun to do so before us. It was time to put right this delay. And therefore, with the cooperation of Commissioner Nielson, the Development Council held in Lisbon in January was, for the first time in history, devoted to EU-Africa relations. It had never been done before. It was the first time. It was an excellent piece of work, which furthermore was reflected, and rightly so, in the results of the summit.
We also finalised negotiation of the ACP agreements for the second Lomé Convention and we finalised the free trade agreement with South Africa. We are also working very rapidly on the Barcelona Process and on African participation in the framework of association agreements seeking to create a free trade area by 2010. We are working to review the Mediterranean strategy, to produce a rigorous draft of the Euro-Mediterranean Charter for Peace and Stability and also to review the MEDA II regulation. We held the Mediterranean Forum in Funchal and we will be holding an informal ministerial meeting in Lisbon on the Barcelona Process, specifically to determine its good and bad points, on what needs to be improved and to prepare the summit which will be held under the French Presidency. With regard to the Cairo Summit, it was not included in our initial programme, because when we took over the Presidency, it had not been finalised, but we always said that if the problems could be resolved, we would be prepared to hold the summit. Later, we proposed the summit, we resolved the diplomatic problems and held a summit whose results were greatly welcomed by the African countries. Of course, we did not resolve all the problems of the African continent overnight, but a step needed to be taken, a step towards including Africa in the European agenda. It was necessary to hold a summit with this scope, on this scale and which would target these goals. We took that step. We must now continue, but I am sure that with the African agenda more rigorously defined in European policies, we are in a position to continue in a sustained and successful way, because the African continent requires it to be so. The situation of conflict, poverty and disease requires the European Union to boldly accept its responsibility. It is also essential for the European Union to have an African agenda. We, that is, Parliament, the Commission and the Council, are all working towards this."@en1
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