Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-28-Speech-3-167"
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"en.20010228.9.3-167"2
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"Mr President, I should first of all like to congratulate Mr Gemelli on this report which is absolutely the most important report we shall be working on in this parliamentary term. There is good reason for joining Mr Gemelli in reminding both the Council and the Commission of the rules which are contained in Article 178 of the Treaty but which neither the Council nor the Commission is following. In paragraph 7 of the motion for a resolution, Mr Gemelli splendidly draws attention to the fact that there must be coherence between development policy objectives and decisions taken in the commercial and agricultural spheres, that the EU’s agricultural policy must be revised and that the EU’s markets must be opened to all goods from the least developed countries. Nonetheless, we have just experienced the incredibly embarrassing fact that, in the ‘Everything but Arms’ agreement, the EU has postponed free access for sugar right up until the year 2009 and that it has also postponed opening its markets for rice and bananas, in short the most important export goods from the world’s 48 poorest countries.
Combating poverty is the primary goal of the EU’s development policy. In order to combat poverty in the developing countries actively and constructively, there are a number of areas which must seriously be taken care of. There are, in particular, three very important points with which the Commission’s communication has not dealt particularly thoroughly. The Committee on Development and Cooperation has adopted a range of amendments on all three of these points, namely reproductive health, the involvement of developing countries as cooperation partners and the involvement of NGOs and civil society in the decision-making process. Bearing in mind the fact that women, and especially women of child-bearing age, are the mainstay of development and the fight against poverty and the fact that reproductive health also includes the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, it is significant that, in general, the Commission rarely refers to health, including women’s reproductive health rights, other than in an aside. It is of the very greatest importance that the EU should help combat these life-threatening diseases that are partly responsible for halting the development process. As is well known, George W. Bush has recently suspended all aid to organisations which, in any way whatsoever, offer advice on contraception and abortion. This is a step which, in the first place, discriminates profoundly against women. Secondly, it is a real threat to public health – or, rather, the absence of public health – in developing countries. That is why it is that much more important for the EU, in future, to make a determined effort in the health field. I therefore hope that the House will adopt those amendments also adopted by the Committee on Development and Cooperation."@en1
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