Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-06-Speech-4-242"
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"en.20010906.13.4-242"2
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".
Ladies and gentlemen, the Commission welcomes the resolution tabled in the run up to the UN Special Conference on Children and congratulates you, Mrs Kinnock, on your most comprehensive report. Your report rightly highlights the need for urgent measures to implement the framework for action set out in Dakar. The Commission has also decided to put development policy, especially the education and health sectors, at the top of its agenda in 2002.
Thirdly, the question of children's rights is closely bound up with the gender problem in general. Education targets for children, especially girls, will not be met until women have an equal status in the family and in the various societies. The Commission is very firmly in favour of paying particular attention to the education needs of girls in developing countries. It is currently preparing an action plan on equal treatment for men and women which should deal with this problem. It is also taking gender-specific questions into account in all special education programmes.
Child welfare is a fundamental concern and a basic objective. An objective that we want to pursue mainly though social policies in sectors such as education and health. Related questions were addressed last year in the Council and Commission declaration on the European Community's development policy in connection with the fight against poverty. They also play a pivotal role in the Cotonou partnership agreement. The Commission has also stepped up support in the education sector and focused measures on basic education, especially primary school education, in recent years.
As a result, the Community has considerably increased the general funds allocated to this sector in comparison with others. In addition, most programmes to promote primary school education contain special clauses for the benefit of girls, in order to counter gender-based drawbacks.
As far as the specific considerations and recommendations which relate to the Community are concerned, I have the following to say: first, the education sector is instrumental in the strategy to fight poverty, which is the overriding aim of the Community's development policy. The Commission shares the view that clear objectives need to be defined, that education aspects need to be included in the fight against poverty and that civil society needs to be involved.
The Commission also takes this standpoint in negotiations with developing countries on strategies to fight poverty. The Commission is determined to play an active role in these negotiations and to further international development objectives.
Secondly, the Community made a formal undertaking in Dakar last year by backing the vision of the world declaration on education for all based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that education is a human right. This means that the Community has also subscribed to the call for countries seriously committed to education not to be impeded in implementing this objective by a lack of funds.
The Commission shares the view of the European Parliament that better coordination and more complementarity between Community measures and national projects, with the help of the Group of Experts on Education, and more intensive cooperation with UNESCO and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa are of paramount importance in improving the effectiveness of Community aid.
The Commission is therefore stepping up its collaboration with UNESCO, especially by supporting UNESCO in coordinating education for all partners. The Commission is also involved in the working party set up to implement the framework for action set out in Dakar. It is also promoting the objectives of education for all in its negotiations on the ACP countries' strategies for the ninth EDF.
As far as the difficult question of setting up a global fund for basic education is concerned, the Commission feels, given the Commission procedure for programming and implementing aid, that this sort of fund is not a practicable solution. However, the Commission does not in principle reject the idea of a global initiative, as provided for in the Dakar framework for action, even if the implementation methods need to be discussed in detail."@en1
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